Maggie Kennedy speaks on Peak Oil

Energy investment banker Matt Simmons
is telling the world that despite the oil sands,
we have reached Peak Oil.














Hi Bryan
It would be nice to add my comments in the section
in your blog, but each time I press the space bar
(between words), it flies to the bottom of the page,
so I've given up. Instead, I've written a tirade below.
If you consider it's worth it, and you'd like to lift into
your blog, by all means do.


Wearing my conservationist hat, I am astounded
that the majority of current city council members can
so blithely ignore the decline of the oil era; but then,
wearing my jaundiced cynic's hat, I'm not surprised
at all. After all, most of the same councillors' interests
lie in development and more development, and that
includes profligate use of the private motor car, and
the roads on which to drive them. They blithely
imagine that they and the buyers of these developments
will have no trouble affording oil-based fuels, no matter
how much the market price may rise. In their eyes, the
idea of putting money into easy-access,cost-effective public
transport smacks of proletarianism(i.e. mixing with the
great unwashed), to be avoided andprohibited at all costs.
Also, the expenditure required toextend the public
transport system might mean curtailment of their
frequent "fact-finding"jaunts toNew York and other
points beyond these shores. All of this, before we start
looking at the seriousness of the dying oil era.

Just to make the subject more complicated, I have
heard lately about the oil sands of Alberta. However,
although it contains very high quality crude, it is very
expensive to extract, and therefore, until now, there
has been reluctance to develop the fields. The people
involved in Alberta say, watch this space. But in the end,
that will be merely a delaying exercise of perhaps50-70
years. Not long in historical terms.

Maggie Kennedy

Council Fails the test with its DLTCCP

More burnt out cars in the future with
Peak Oil

I can't say I was surprised by Wellington City Council's
failure to include Peak Oil and Gas in the Latest
Draft Long Term Council Community Plan ( DLTCCP).
Though I've been talking about this serious issue that
faces the community you would hardly expect a
Council committed to private transport wanting to take
it seriously. After all Council is really just a mirror of
the popular culture that is still in denial.

It's not that ordinary people haven't worked out that
something might be wrong in Godzone, it's just that it
all seems too hard to deal with. Adding to this is the
mixed messages that flow from the Fourth
Estate ( media) about this impending crisis. Turn to
the pages of the Capital's daily on any given day and
you will find a full defence of the consumer paradigm
for society, with its grip on the monolithic fuel based
culture - a culture totally dependent on oil.

A week ago that paradigm received a major jolt from
CNN with its Peak Oil documentary " You have been
warned". CNN was telling the world that the party
was over for cheap energy. That programme
was preceded by a succession of Peak Oil slots on
Nine to Noon exposing the supply crisis we face.

In a last ditch battle before the LTCCP was closed
off at Council I attempted to shock Council into
making provision for what is looking like a terminal
situation. Why would Council not want to prepare for
the coming energy crisis that could all but decimate
the Capital over the next ten years.

Given the seriousness of this situation my last strategy
was to move an amendment seeking a joint collaboration
between Government and Council in order to cope with
this impending energy crisis. That failed to get enough
support and was withdrawn and left my only fall back
position. After last minute consultation with the CEO,
I voted against the Draft Long Term Council Community
Plan.

It is now up to you to demand that Council reset its
Draft Long Term Council Community Plan in the light
of Peak Oil and Gas or suffer the terminal consequences.

Democracy in action

Newtown Residents' Association ( March 2006)













Newtown Residents' Association
embraces Peak Oil.

At a meeting of the Newtown Residents'
Association on March 20th 2006 , the Association
faced down the important issue of Peak Oil.

Committee member Nick Jennings wondered
how the Wellington City Council could produce
a Draft Long Term Council Community Plan
without embracing the serious issue of Peak Oil.

The Committee, chaired by the competent Tom Law,
resolved to ask the Federation of Residents and
Progressive Associations to hold a public meeting to
discuss the DLTCCP in relation to the problem of
Peak Oil and the provision of water as a fundamental
human right.

The Newtown Residents Association has a long history
of commitment to social justice. Last night Nick Jennings also
raised the issue of the unacceptable divide between rich and poor
that must be addressed.

Now the southern ward's Newtown community looks like
being the first to embrace Peak Oil.

Wellington's rating scandal and the DLTCCP

Councillors,
I continue to regard the shift in the rates differential from the business sector to the residential sector as a redistribution of wealth to the business sector. Rates are a deduction for business and passed on and this puts an unfair burden on the residential ratepayer. This is effectively a rates subsidy to the wealthy from the poor. Around 30 percent of the residential sector is rented and so there is an even harsher penalty on those who rent. Furthermore, the commercial sector, in particular the CBD, make substantial capital gains that are not taxed. Therefore rates are entirely appropriate at the higher levels that have been levied. There is no need to move the differential any further. In fact it should be reset at a higher level to the business sector, much of which is owned by multi -national corporations where no person is affected, unlike the residential sector.

Rates should address the issue of Capital gain that comes about via the benefits commercial property attracts in the Capital. Added to this is also the provision of amenities that outsiders use that is supplied to the commercial sector. Around forty thousand people come to the city each day and use the city's amenities while employed by the commercial sector. It is the commercial sector's responsibility to cover these costs. They are now being transferred to the residential sector. There are also the costs incurred by approximately 1.5 million tourists who visit the city each year- about 4 million bed nights used. All this is becoming a cost to the resident.

This is the most political decision you make. There is a saying that "The rich man (and the Council and the Corporation) will do anything for the poor man except get off his back."

Cr Pepperell

Councillors calls for rail, not roads - energy banker agrees

Matt Simmons gives the best advice
money can buy at the 2006 Energywise
forum held at Nelson.
He should not be ignored.















In December of last year Cr Helen Ritchie
and I called for fast trains as the answer to
the Capital's northern traffic problems, not
Transmission Gully or an upgraded coastal
highway to Wellington. Clearly Peak Oil was
very much in the minds of myself and
Councillor Ritchie and many of my friends at
Running On Empty.

As you know, last week (Thursday 9 March)
I attended an Energywise forum in Nelson
on behalf of Wellington City Council.
Energy investment banker Matt Simmons
was a key note speaker at that forum.
It was attended by a group of local government
official and elected representatives.

After telling us that Peak Oil is the most
serious issue we face in the 21st century,
Matt Simmons warned that denial of this
most pressing problem would lead
to the death of our culture and way of life.
Mr Simmons went on to tell us how we can
solve Peak Oil. Peak Oil, in case you hadn't
realised, is when supply peaks and then
cannot keep up with demand. That in
turn pushes up the price. Even worse the
supply of oil continues to fall, leading to an oil
crash.
Oil is expected reach $200 US a barrel,
and the rest I can leave to your imagination.

The solution argues Matt Simmons is to; -
-Reduce transportation intensity of oil
-Shipment of goods by truck becomes train to boat
-Liberation of employees to work close to home
-End nine to five check in
-Begin era of pay by productivity
-Grow food locally:end era of ornamental food.
-Reverse globalization: make things at home

Professor Ralph Sims speaks at EnergyWise forum 2006

Prof Ralph Sims










Prof Ralph Sims walked for 30 minutes from
his motel to the Energywise Councils Annual
Forum then delivered a sobbering lecture on
climate change. The punchline was that it has
happened and we won't see a reversal in our
lifetime, even if we do take drastic steps to
remedy it now.

I was reminded of Ron Resnick's quote
from Kafka..."There's hope, but not for us." 

EnergyWise Councils Annual Forum 2006

Ron Resnick from Nelson Peak Oil group
joins Bryan Pepperell at the EnergyWise
Forum.



















You can't imagine how surprised I was
to find I was the only person to arrive at
the openning of the EnergyWise Annual
Forum 2006 on a bicycle!

 

BP Oil New Zealand On Peak Oil

Peter Griffiths, General Manager, BP Oil New Zealand, talks frankly about the problems of Peak Oil in his address at the Energy Forum. Peter freely admits that energy will cost more in the future. I think he was forthright and frank and we couldn't have asked for more from an industry commentator with a vested interest. He is an unashamed apologist for the free market but acknowledges the difficulties in a paradigm shift that will be needed in the Post Peak Oil world.

BP is now rebranding itself as Beyond Petroleum. I asked Peter if BP will continue to send mixed messages about the problem of Peak Oil and will BP join with the community in the new age of human energy to deal with this crisis. You will have to ask BP Oil New Zealand about these issues.

Peter Griffiths summarized his address by saying..

*Oil will play a large part in the forseeable future
*Alternatives will supplement use
*Technology will be key
*Energy will cost more
*We need to change our focus
*Many things you can do 

Energy Award Winning Arrow Motel of Nelson

I stayed at this wonderful award winning "Green" Motel in Nelson while attending the EnergyWise Council Annual Forum 2006. Owner John Gilberton loaned me a bicycle for transport.

I cycled to the opening of the forum and back on John's Bicycle using the cycle track and the road. Nelson has the most wonderful cycle track but sadly much of it is along a disused rail corridor.

The World Is Entering A Peak For Oil And Gas - Says top Energy Banker

Matt Simmons at Nelson Energy Fourum














Recently (last Wednesday) I, along with some of my friends, had a private meeting with one of the world's biggest investment bankers to the energy sector. His name is Matt Simmons, of Simmons & Company, and he has brokered sixty five billion US dollars in energy deals. Energy in the 21st century is a an eight to nine trillion a year business!

You might wonder why this meeting took place. I'm a member of a Peak Oil Group that has been researching energy supply issues for the last five years. Meeting Matt Simmons was a consequence of my involvement with www.oilcrash.com that I represented in London last year.

Matt Simmons has been in New Zealand talking to energy groups and participating in forums sponsored by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority and other interested parties, including government and local government. Mr Simmons has become widely known through his involvement with the Association of Scientists for Peak Oil and has featured in two documentaries on the subject of oil depletion. Like climate change Peak Oil is becoming an accepted fact among those involved in the energy sector. It is yet to be fully understood by the media and popular culture. The implications of Peak Oil and Gas are horrendous if left unattended. Climate change is now generally accepted as having passed the point of a quick or easy fix.

While Mr Simmons believes we face a crisis or a sequence of events that if left unattended will become terminal, he does believe there is a solution for the world. The challenge will be whether we can act in time to prevent this from happening.

The day after our private meeting with Matt Simmons I attended an Energy Forum where Matt was a keynote speaker, along with Peter Griffiths, General Manager, BP Oil New Zealand, and Professor Ralph Sims, Massey University. There was a Panel discussion chaired by Heather Staley. The outcome of that discussion was diverse as to the nature of crisis that we face. However there was agreement that Peak Oil would impact on us sooner or later. You may have your own opinion on that but I guess rising fuel prices is speaking volumes to most of us. That's enough for now- more later.

Save Te Raekaihau Point

This site needs a tidy up - Yeah right!















What is so wonderful about New Zealand is that much of the natural environment is still unspoiled. Lets keep it that way!

Wellington City Council switches business rates onto residents in DLTCCP

The following was my address to the Mayor & Councillors over the Rates Differential in the Draft Long Term Council Community Plan for 2006/2016

Councillors, I continue to regard the shift in the rates differential from the business sector to the residential sector as a redistribution of wealth to the business sector.

Rates are a deduction for business and passed on and this puts an unfair burden on the residential ratepayer. This is effectively a rates subsidy to the wealthy from the poor. Around 30 percent of the residential sector is rented and so there is an even harsher penalty on those who rent. Furthermore, the commercial sector, in particular the CBD, make substantial capital gains that are not taxed. Therefore rates are entirely appropriate at the higher levels that have been levied. There is no need to move the differential any further. In fact it should be reset at a higher level to the business sector, much of which is owned by multi -national corporations where no person is affected, unlike the residential sector.

This is the most political decision you [councillors] make and it cuts to the heart of what Leo Tolstoy meant when he said.. "The rich man will do anything for the poor man except get off his back."

Yesterday, March the 3rd, four Councillors voted against this proposal for the DLTCCP; They were Cr Pepperell, Cr Ruben, Cr Gill, Cr Cook.