petrol costs spell doom for the suburbs, page-15

Sierra. Forums like this are good because it gives people like me a chance to express a contrarian view or discuss the erroneous "typical scenario" on which much discussion is based.

I live in the Pilbara in the North West of WA. The eco friendly pox box of your dreams would simply be smashed apart by the woeful road infrastructure up here. If I drive to Perth I face a 20 hour drive which will entail driving at night with roads populated with Black Aberdeen Angus cattle and kangaroos. The consequences of a collision in the Pox Box are fatal whereas my 2.5 Tonne Nissan Patrol road car is survivable. Both my vehicles require long range tanks. Both my vehicles have dual batteries, driving lights and bullbars. Why punish me with taxes from your city centric and narrow perspective? Someone’s has to live up here and provide you with the resource and mineral wealth on which so much of your existence is predicated.

There is no doubt in my mind that the quoted Govt report is alarmist. Believe it if you will. I however believe that the forces of supply and demand will establish an equilibrium price for fuel. Oil price /barrel cost assumptions of $200-$250 US will simply extinguish the luxury we currently have of burning all the easy to get Arab oil first. Conditions such as these would make investment in Synthetic Diesel synthesis from Natural Gas (Fisher Tropsch) feasible. There is sufficient reserves of Natural Gas off Karratha alone to supply Australia’s transport fuel requirements for more than 200 years.