DNC, Biden and The Oil Drum on Trains and Peak Oil

It Democratic Nation Convention time in the US at the moment. I'm going to pull a few thread together and point at some goodness that could follow.

The Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden is a well know rail champion. He could be a major factor in taking some major peak oil/global warming action in the US (if elected).

Last year I blog on what we should be doing in Queensland and Australia generally.

Last month, TheOilDrum a peak oil site, ran a great article about railway electrification in the US. Lots of debate and chatter persued, all good value :)

Here are wikipedia's notes on railway electrification (root page), and pages related to the UK and the US.

If Joe Biden does choose to pursue this and succeeds, it will likely be his greatest contribution to his country. It would be what he's remembered for, short of getting himself enpeached. So Joe, no late night expedition to the Republican Party Nation Headquarters!


Gnoll110

Tale of Three Cities

Last week a bit of publicly funded propaganda arrived in my mail box.

The one thing struck me in the ‘Budget Highlights 2008-2009’ was that the ACT Labor government is fond of trees. Indeed is seems to be the only tool in their climate change toolbox.

Here are the climate change dot points by town area.

Belconnen:
Additional tree plantings – Lake Ginninderra.

Canberra Central:
$0.267 million for Tree Replacement Program – Inner South and Inner North.
$0.250 million for Additional Tree Plantings at Lake Burley Griffin.

Gungahlin:
Additional tree plantings at Gungahlin.

Tuggeranong:
Additional tree plantings at Lake Tuggeranong.

Woden, Weston Creek and Molonglo:
$10.6 million for One Million Trees Initiative – Canberra International Arboretum and Gardens.

I’ve always said that renewable energy programs are a far better investment, than the knee jerk ‘plant trees’ response, for building a sustainable climate future.

Given the twists and turns in the Tuggeranong Power Station project, maybe it’s time for another approach.

Canberra hosts the Australian Federal Parliament. Lets look at the city that hosts the mother parliament; London.

The last Lord Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, set in motion a plan to make the city far most sustainable. The new Lord Mayor has undertaken to continue this drive.

What was the first thing that London did, it poached the guy that had the most foresight and experience with this kind of infrastructure redevelopment. They made Allan Jones, the energy services manager for Woking, an offer he couldn’t refuse. Over the last 20 years, he has nudged and lead the development and integration of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems and other efficient decentralized developments into the infrastructure of the English city.

Stuff about Woking and London.

Woking is a city of 60,000, a good match for the basic units of Canberra’s development, the towns.

This work doesn’t come cheap. Anyone who says fixing climate change will cost a household $200 a years in extra costs is dreaming, deluded or a con man.


Gnoll110

Also in Britain, today...

Britain finishes repaying the last of the World War II loans from the US.

What is being repay these last few day of 2006 are the last of the recovery loans made to Britain by the US and Canada in 1945 and 1946.

The non-monetary condition the US attached to its loans to Britain during this period cost Britain a lot.

Some press coverage here, here and here.

Some critics, including Lord Keynes, saw the loan as a means used by America to subjugate Britain after the war.

It appears I agree with one of the greatest economists of the 20th Century too.

"Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests."

Lord Palmerston PM (twice) & English Statesman, 1784-1865

There is another quote the goes something like, "Leaders have friends, nations only have interests", but I can't find it today!


Gnoll110