Wait, I know why. It’s Chile beating Argentina for the first time in 30-something years.

Anyway, no segue for me.

Unfortunately we are heavily reliant on coal at the moment. And yes we should reduce our reliance on all carbon fuels. But realistically in this economy, we need to rely on coal still, and we should consider using this resource more efficiently. Carbon credits are a great idea, but Ultimately we still need technologies like UCG. Technologies like UCG should replace conventional coal producing facilities. Its tested, it works, we should use everything in our power to try to reduce carbon emmissions. Everything! And get ourselves seperated by the control of OPEC.

Who knows going forward, technologies could be created to turn CO2 into rocks(Solids) which would make this technology a contributer to the building industry as well. UCG at present has the potential to produce Fuels/Raw energy/Plastics/Fertilisers.

Cheers.

John: Waddaya mean it enables carbon sequestration? That’s like saying eating rancid food enables vomitting. Please demonstrate where the carbon emissions are reduced with this technology, in the absence of the as yet unavailable sequestration implementation, on the China scale we are talking here.

From an Ambre ( who want to do coal to fule in felton, a coal champion, but almost honest) corporate document:

While the technology for capturing pure CO2 from syngas is well advanced, the technology associated with geosequestration of CO2 requires further development. There is much confidence about the ultimate prospects for low-cost commercial geosequestration, but during this “gap”, coal gasification plants will have no option but to purchase carbon pollution permits.

For “much confidence”, read “desparate yearnings”

I certainly wouldn’t want to live on top of one of these CO2 timebombs if it should ever go off, even if it was really a go-er to do in the first place, not just a bit of hand waving in a prospectus.

There’s a lake somewhere in africa where a natural CO2 resevoir burped and it killed I dunno how many folks for I dunno how many miles around. It’s like saying the house is clean by sweeping prawn shells under the carpet.
I’m no expert but, and correct me if I’m wrong, but coal is pretty much carbon about as dense as it can get. As each carbon atom becomes CO2, adds 2 oxygens, it must get bigger. Even if you could make the CO2 as dense as the coal from whence it came, it has to be a bigger in aggregate. That’s if you could make high temeprature solid co2. It just can’t fit back down the hole from which it was dug, the idea is not sustainable.
The opportunity cost of devoting huge resources into the fantasy which defies first principles might build a few careers and speculator fortunes and create a lot of column inches, but it would be better spent on solutions that weren’t predicated on geologic yesterdays’ fixed sunshine, but today’s and tomorrow’s.

Coal mining should be phased out. New mines should be not allowed.

I dunno about considering the state of the world economy as a justification, but the state of the queensland economy i see: broke, gutless and clueless, all it’s eggs in one black basket. It used to have the great barrier reef as a drawcard, but unless there’s a market for Big Mistakes as a perverse attraction, dead coral covered in the slime resulting from excess nutrient runoff of agriculture is unlikely to be a basis for a future tourism industry.

Now if we were growing algae purposively, with multiple growth and reproduction control features genetically engineered in, that massively fixed Co2, used saline waters, scavanged those fugitive nutrients, and fed into a process like the LS9 one, with green diesel as the output, that sort of industry I could get behind. We got the sunshine.

Course, some eggs are gonna have to get broken for this custard, and some local ecology would be sadly trashed, but as i say it would be local, not like the global enviro-pox uber-coal will inevitably create.

My vote is the Gulf of Saint Vincent, or is it spencer Gulf, whichever has Kangaroo Isalnd in it’s mouth. Adelaide’s on it’s last legs anyway waterwise, just leave a skeleton crew.Sometimes at semaphore the natural seaweed load was pretty whiffy anyway, it’s not like the phenomonon was new there. Lake Eyre is below sea level, maybe we could just back fill it with sea water and inoculate. Plenty of sun out there, and all those dead birds as a nitrogen source, she’d go gangbusters, .

Or Moreton Bay.

But most likely China will put their hand up to be the Arabs of Green Oil industry. Remember the algal bloom at Qingdao for weeks before the olympics that almost shut the sailing down? Like that. Too easy.

While proponents of UCG claim it is a proven technology with no environmental risk, the Queensland Government is being ultra-cautious in its approach. So much so that on Wednesday afternoon, after inquiries from this newspaper, it issued a statement that “the Department of Mines and Energy has no intention of granting production tenures for underground coal gasification for at least three years”.

It was a short-term political fix, but when the ASX opened on Wednesday morning the share prices of all three UCG companies were slashed. Linc dropped 13 per cent, Carbon Energy dropped 35 per cent, while Cougar Energy dropped 11.5 per cent.

During the day, the state government’s position changed subtly. It issued another statement, this time with no mention of the three-year moratorium. Instead, Queensland Mines and Energy Minister Geoff Wilson said the state Government “would only do what was best for Queensland in relation to underground coal gasification technology on trial in the state”.

“These projects are in a pilot phase, which is why they have a conditional tenure and that gives no automatic right to a production tenure at a later point,” he said.

“We’re not about to give the green light to underground coal gasification projects, especially where any of them may affect the Great Artesian Basin, unless we’re convinced it’s in the best interests of Queensland.

“Any company carrying out trials of this new technology is doing so in the full knowledge of the state Government’s stance. This should come as no surprise to anyone.”

There was some recovery in share prices yesterday, with Linc gaining 8.5 per cent to finish at $3.20, not that far behind the $3.38 it had been before the state Government’s statement.

The Advice from the Office of the Minister for Mines and Energy, was

“The Department of Mines and Energy has no intention of granting production tenures for underground coal gasification for at least three years. Underground coal gasification is a new technology, untried in Australian conditions, and it poses some potential problems, especially with groundwater systems. We will only do what’s best for Queensland. In this case, we don’t believe it’s in the best interests of Queensland to grant production tenures for technology that is untried. It would have to meet the most stringent environmental standards.“

Note the word production. That sort of political sophistry allows them to avoid making decisions based on principle, absolutely gutless.

Unfortunately there are a lot of moneyed people out there for whom the world is a simple place with just potential investments, and treehuggers getting in the way. Such as superannuation funds etc..

We are in a pickle.

“A senior official from China’s Xinwen Mining has denied a report that the deal between the company and Linc Energy, an Australian coal liquefaction company, on buying mining right will be wrapped up within this year as claimed by a senior official of Linc Energy.

Peter Bond, CEO of Linc Energy, told a reporter in an exclusive interview Tuesday their 1.5 billion Australian-dollar deal with Xinwen Mining on coal mine exploration right was about to be accomplished by the end of this week.

The Xinwen Mining source disclaimed the report. He said besides a frame agreement, their negotiation had not come to any details yet, including the quotation by the Australian side.

In September, Xinwen Mining signed an agreement with Linc Energy to buy a portion of the exploration right of Theresa coal mine in Bowen Basin, Queensland.

Insiders hold that the focus of their negotiation is the high quote by Linc Energy. The price offer is 1.5 billion AUD, or around 8 billion yuan. Comparing to the low domestic price and its low percentage in overall development cost, it would be wiser to make domestic investment, even the mining right included. ”

The “domestic” there means china: Linc’s playing several cards at once, one being a demo of crappy coal to diesel, at a small fraction of the price of oil-derived diesel, “so they say”, and damn the greenhouse gases, and great artesian basin security, they’re dealing that in China, so now china can go: Who needs their expensive coal, we can use our crappy coal, and Linc has shown ‘em how, and are willing partners, but they are really just retailing Russian technology, and will probably be shafted, or bought out, by China. (And hasn’t Russia been a shining light of environmental responsibility, poisoning one of the world’s biggest freshwater reserves, Lake Baikal to the point of species extinction, etc.? We worry about the Mary River, lake Baikal has 20% of the world’s fresh water, and they f’d that up)
Of course we’ll buy in, or sell in: our treasury’s broke after all, and the hospitals’ are stuffed, what infrastructure etc, what choice do we have, says Anna and Greg.

David Gibson and Ronan Lee, if your autogoogling finds this, the potted money story is here, from 5 weeks ago, . Note, it’s on Wayne Swan’s desk, and of course he’s been distracted, it’s a perfect storm of bad governence really. ther are a few days left but, and maybe you two, and your organisations, can put the frighteners on Labor about grabbing queensland by forming a dark green alliance. Sure, the Nats and coal have much DNA in common via Joh and Palmer, but how does the “selling Queensland off to China” play with the overall Nats rural constituency? Mining isn’t really that good for country towns generally, quite the opposite, just pushing up prices and creating a local working poor compared to the miners.

Gotta go, it’s all a bit rushed but I hope you can get the signal through the noise: these developments have huge and bad implications for Greenhouse gas production, when China grabs it, via Qld and autralia’s regulatory regime, or lack therof. HTF Linc can be called a “clean fuel producer” has got me beat, I don’t see any plausible let alone real CO2 sequestration plans.

The thing is, they reckon the operating cost will be $US28 a barrel, so there is so much money to be made, the chance of pulling it up on the basis of greenhouse gases, and maybe threats to the Great Artesian Basin, would be minimal, there’s fortunes, and royalties to be made.

A lincenergy document says “The project at Chinchilla is only one of 14 coal tenements secured by Linc across Queensland for potential diesel production.”

Linn has all but sold ( there are a couple of days left till the (very quiet) due diligence process by state and federal goverments to OK it are in) its Bowen Basin tenements in Queensland to China’s Xinwen Mining Group for $1.5 billion, and signed a deal with them to develop underground coal gasification (UCG) and gas to liquids (GTL) projects in China.

What’s the bet in the fullness of time China doesn’t buy LINC or somehow else start going hell for leather producing cheap and profitable diesel here.

It’s be great if either of the non-treasury bench environmental shadows cold throw a spanner in the due diligence works and get a better result for the planet, but the nats are bankrolled by Palmer coal-money, so David Gibson is not likely to speak up, regardless of his algae-based green oil interest, and the gov’t has the numbers, and are shameless.

Ronan won’t be across it either, it’s all been very quitely shepherded through.

Future generations, if you are reading this, sorry. There is so much coal out there, and now it can be used that much more, and there’s huge margins in it for the producers, and they just don’t care, and no-one in government will do anythying about it.

At least as far as the environment is concerned, the Liberal Nationals under Springborg have given up some of their more harsh edged climate denial rhetoric and replaced it with soothing talk of renewable energy excellence etc.

Now they are trying to enmesh themselves with the Greens.

The centre ground is now being occupied by the LiberalNationalParty who could be seen as closest to the Greens and will be demanding a preference swap with each other at the next election.

Now it is becoming obvious why the swing to the left by the LiberalNational Party is starting to erode the vote of the Government.It does however leave them open to their position being stolen back by the Government or an attack from the right in the form of conservative independents.

The best we could hope for politically is a dark green opposition resonating with the electorate and pulling the Rudd government to real action on climate change rather than faffing around with lame and ineffective emissions trading scheme and unclean coal!

Currently the still get the kudos for appearing “green” – partly because half the opposition are denialists and/or delusionists.

And don’t forget Martin Ferguson and NSW Labor still want to burn old growth forests for “green energy” – which will be another crime of the century if it happens.

We should share receipes. We have some tasty little dishes up my way thanks to Anna and her mates.
Baked Lungfish, served on a rotting methane producing vegetation is a Beattie/Bligh favourite. As entree there is always frickaseed giant barred tree frog legs – a real delicacy, or you can just get the endangered seafood platter with fried mary river cod, crushed shell mary river turtle and beer battered lungfish – but you better hurry once stocks are gone this special is off the menu.

Whats the date on the felton do? I’ll pack my flambe pan.

I’ve got a few household family chores to take care of, like cooking up a mess of Slow Fried Low Grade Coal with a Di Methyl Ether sauce. We get it at a quaint little ex-farmer’s market on the Downs, place called Felton. It’s the signature dish of a quaint little pub up there, the Poisoned Water-hole and Soil.

While I’m doing that, maybe you could get on the partyline, and find out when it was that Agforce, and the EPA folks, got deployed as the Bunnies for US coal, what sort of chain of command cluster leads from them to Mines and Energy?

You’ll be at the felton heads-up won’t you?