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NewsTrees May Fuel Australia's futureAn Innovate Australia vision for methanol-powered car transport says we would be need to plant 750,000 hectares of trees a year – 10 times our current tree-planting effort - to fuel all our carsThis enormous rate of planting would need to continue for 50 years, and then be maintained. Plantation plantings in Australia over the past eight years have averaged out at about 80,000 hectares a year. The development of bioalcohol industries clearly has major implications for natural resource management, regional development and the national economy. The CSIRO group found that Australia’s oil reserves will be almost exhausted by 2020 and, at the current rate of export, we'll be out of natural gas by 2040. The group says future importations of oil and gas will put huge pressure on the national balance of payments, with an estimate that annual energy imports will cost Australia $5 billion by 2010, rising to $10 billion by 2020. On the other hand, the report says, Australia could become self-sufficient in energy if it changed to a methanol-led economy. “This means that wood for the manufacture of methanol would gradually replace oil as our major fuel source,” says CSIRO group leader Barney Foran. Methanol has had a long association with motoring. It powered the first internal combustion engines, and these days is the fuel of Indy racing cars. And according to Barney Foran, Mercedes Benz currently has a methanol-powered car on the production line. The Executive Director of Land & Water Australia, Andrew Campbell, says Australia needs to examine its future energy needs with an awareness of all of the potential benefits and drawbacks. “The advantages of biofuels include reduced greenhouse emissions, reduced reliance on imported fossil fuels and significant regional development opportunities,” Campbell says. However, he warns that the transition between a fossil fuel economy and one based on biofuels could produce an economic downturn. It could also exacerbate land use planning problems, displace existing agricultural industries, and cause social dislocation. “Large-scale plantations would also reduce run-off and affect river flows,” he says. “And as with any new technology, there’s the risk of being overtaken by newer, smarter and less resource-intensive technologies. “We must be aware of these issues in order to understand them and deal with them.” Contact: Tim Lester, Land & Water Australia, 02 6263 6021, tim.lester@lwa.gov.au Return to the News Archive |
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