It is understandable that those with ecology in mind will protest at any proposal to start a new coal mine anywhere in Australia. Unfortunately this same distaste is also accorded to oil and yet oil is not just restricted to the stuff we put in the tank of our car. It is the base material for most manufacturing industries and takes a part somewhere in everything from pharmaceuticals to the watering can we use to water our house plants, and it will remain vital for the next thousand years.
BP has just announced that it has abandoned plans for two exploratory oil wells to be drilled off the South Australian coast in the Great Australian Bight. The official explanation for this move is that "it could not compete in capital expenditure plans at present "! In other words - because of the low world price of oil.
No doubt BP was also considering the vocal opposition it could expect from the ecology lobby seeking to block all forms of mining - and that includes drilling oil wells and fracking for oil and gas. The fact that this would have been the first test drilling in the Great Australian Bight would have certainly brought mention of the Deep Water Horizon catastrophe and claims that a similar incident here would foul our entire southern coastline.
Life is never without risk and Australia is now an oil and gas producing country. At present, we live in a world which is over producing oil and that is why the price is at a historical low, but it will not always remain that way. If there are more undiscovered oil and gas deposits here it would be in our interests to find them, even if we have no immediate plans to bring them into production.
This element of risk seems to be stifling a lot of creative thought here at present. We are still grappling with the conundrum of how we generate enough electricity to serve our needs. The storm that blacked out the entire state of South Australia sent shock waves through the nation. There has been the usual political finger pointing, but it is South Australia that is leading the nation in utilising wind and solar to meet its needs.
Accidents in nuclear power plants in Ukraine and Japan sent the world into a tail spin. Japan and Germany shut their nuclear plants, but now new and safer nuclear power generation is thriving in many countries. There is simply no real alternative to nuclear to provide a base load and fill the gap when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.
This natural alternative seems to bring a deathly silence here in Australia. The very mention scares our politicians witless. The most logical way to power up a whole continent like Australia is by an interconnected power grid making use of our vast size. Because of the disparity of time zones a lot of our need can come from wind and solar, but we need a reliable base load to even things out - and that can only be either coal or oil - or nuclear.
We are a uranium producer and the fact that we have an entire continent at our disposal spreads the load - and the risk. Its about time nuclear got dragged out of the closet and we had a serious debate on how we are going to power the nation for the rest of this century.
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