The federal government has passed a law preventing Australian companies from relying on data from animal testing for ingredients to be used solely in cosmetics. More than 500,000 animals – mainly rabbits,
Apache Corp., the US oil and gas company operating on five continents, and Santos plan to build an $800 million natural gas project in Western Australia to benefit from rising prices for the fuel. The partners have approved the Devil Creek project, which will tap gas from the offshore Reindeer field for supply to customers in Western Australia, Tim Wall, managing director of Apache's Australian unit, said in an interview. The project may start up in 2010, Apache says on a Web site on the project.
Motorists can expect to pay even more at the bowser with oil prices to continue rising, says the chief of Caltex Australia. "There is long-term upward pressure on petrol prices and Australians, like motorists around the world, can expect to pay more," Caltex chairman Elizabeth Bryan told shareholders today at the company's annual general meeting in Sydney. Ms Bryan said that, as an oil refiner and marketer rather than producer or explorer, Caltex was forced to pay the world price for oil.
IT IS great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on petrol, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer's travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our petrol tanks. What a way to build our country.
VICTORIA'S brown coal industry will benefit from a multimillion-dollar investment flowing into clean-coal technology company Exergen. Indian multinational company Tata Power and Australian engineering services company Sedgman yesterday announced their investment at Beaconsfield, Tasmania, the site of Exergen's pilot plant. They join foundation investor Thiess. The size and conditions of the investment are being kept confidential, but the money will help fund a $20 million engineering study to be conducted over the next eight to nine months.
NSW power play stirs up a giant of global warming SOONER or later, some anti-privatisation activist will start doing background checks on China Huaneng Group, which is at the front of the queue to bid for $15 billion in NSW power assets. They'll see that Sydney might soon be powered by the world's biggest corporate contributor to global warming.
Talking fridges hate global warming - pass it on YOUR refrigerator could soon be helping to cool the planet as well as your food. A bar fridge built by the CSIRO has the ability to communicate with other refrigerators. The appliances do not gossip about what kind of milk you have bought, but exchange data that could help balance energy usage across the day and, ultimately, reduce the need for power stations, said a CSIRO research scientist, Geoff James.
Melbourne petrol prices have hit an all-time high of 164.9 cents a litre today. As crude oil futures dipped below $US129 a barrel this morning, the city's unleaded petrol prices surpassed last week's record high of $162.9. The average price so far today is 149.9 cents per litre of unleaded fuel - almost 20 cents above the average of 130.4 cents paid by motorists in May last year, according to the RACV. The lowest price is 145.9 cents in Highett and Moorabbin. Motormouth director Alan Cadd said today's record high reflected crude oil price spikes over the past fortnight.
HOME owners may soon have to reveal the energy efficiency of their homes when they put them up for sale, potentially affecting the value of millions of homes.
The Rudd Government's Green Paper on carbon trading uses adjectives like "smoother", "gradual", and "measured" to describe the scheme's implementation because cutting Australia's emissions by 60 per cent in four decades is going to produce profound structural change, and, inevitably, political repercussions. Like a dentist poised above you, drill in hand, the Government wants to warn us that the process will be difficult, and reassure us that it will no more painful than absolutely necessary.
