I thought you might find this interesting reading. Its interesting to see the federal MP's being concerned about the lack of renewable fuels when they are the ones proposing to legislate to prevent people from producing their own biodiesel!
http://www.abc.net.au/centralvic/stories/s1013442.htm Diesel or Bust Reporter: Dave Lennon and Claire Leunig Friday, 19 December 2003 The recent diesel shortage is having a detrimental effect on farmers struggling to find enough of the fuel to run their harvesting machinery at this crucial time of year. The ABC's Dave Lennon spoke to Federal Member for Murray, Dr Sharman Stone. Dr Stone says the diesel shortage couldn't come at a worse time, with farmers already having faced drought and frost damage. "We've had this shortage of fuel now for about the last three weeks," says Dr Stone. "It's meant a great deal of frustration, particularly when the transport operators and the farmers haven't been able to get straight answers from anybody." Dr Stone points out the frost had a particularly devastating effect in the Goulburn and Murray Valley areas with the loss of all the apricots, nectarines and plums. "(It's a) tragic thing after the drought of course, we were looking forward to pulling back out with this seasons crop," says Dr Stone. "Then on the 28th of September we had minus 2.5 degrees, (the) worst frost ever recorded, which took out all of those first summer fruits. "So the dependency now is on the apples, pears, cherries, and grapes, so every kilo of fruit that we can get off the trees is going to help people survive. "Now the last thing you need is to find you've put your order in for diesel and instead of your full supply arriving on your farm, you're getting a fraction of that - or not at all." According to Dr Stone, the major oil companies are "just out of touch with their consumers." "We all knew - well everyone in Victoria knew - that we've had this pulling out of the drought, that everybody is madly cutting hay, fodder, every tractor is churning - for some (it's) 10 hours a day - fuel (is) being used at a rate of never before. "Senior management from some of the oil companies said to me that they estimated that there would be a 16 per cent increase in diesel consumption, but in fact, there's been 24 per cent increase in diesel consumption. "We've got a compounding of problems of miscalculations of how much fuel we needed, the annual maintenance that they do on the refineries happening business as usual, and then there is a shortage of transports to physically get the fuel from the refineries out up to Northern Victoria. "Put all that together and you've got a problem." Dr Stone says with the lack of alternative fuels available, in particular bio-diesel, there is little choice left for consumers. "Because we don't have the alternatives, like bio-diesel out there, the canola mixes, and in other countries you've got the ethanol blends and so on, we have only one option, (that) is the petroleum-based diesel. "It's a very concerning thing that we've got this shortage right now, but more of a worry, when are we going to get over this hump?" Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuels-biz/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
