![coal to oil](https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/coal-to-oil.jpg)
Running on Empty, Hoping for the Best
Heinz Guderian, the inspired tank commander of World War II, once remarked that “The engine of the panzer is just as much a weapon as the main gun.” Well, if the engine is a weapon, so is the fuel tank. And Australia’s fuel tank is near empty. We are importing 90% of the transport fuels we consume. The net effect after adding back the little bit of oil we export is still parlous and deteriorating yearly.
What to do? What we should do is not deny ourselves what China is having. China is installing near one million barrels per day of coal-to-liquids (CTL) capacity. That is about what we need — and we would be safe and secure until the coal runs out sometime next century.
CTL is the only solution to our liquid-fuel security problem. Nothing else works – not biofuels, not sunbeams. Not natural gas – the three giant refrigerators to liquefy the gas being completed in Gladstone will suck every spare methane molecule out of the east coast. Electric…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins