Oil, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism
Transmission Gully Axed!

Maurice Williamson, contendor for the NFI Award of the week, Champion of the Order of the White Elephant either has the same problem as the alcoholic; denial. Otherwise he has some form of mental retardation.

Heather Roy, (ACT) a clueless bimbo with as much understanding of energy as a rodent running on a treadmill might have to share the award with Maurie.

And, Peter Dunne (United no Future), must win the sheer stupidity award for hilariously calling the axing of the Transmission Gully idea as "sheer arrogance", for that's what it would be to go ahead with the nonsense.

Somewhat ironically I often see the United Future big fuck off 4WD global warmer driving round Wellington burning barrels of oil plastered with "United Future Loves the Environment" stickers. It reminds me of quasi-greeny, hairy armpitted soccer mums, their V8 Toyota Prado's parked in the Organics Shop Carpark loading up with organic chooks, GE Free NZ stickers proudly displayed on the rear windows.

As oil prices hit record highs of US$64 a barrel overnight and Goldman Sachs and other investment bankers predict prices out towards $100 a barrel within the next year or so, spending billions building more roads (such as Transmission Gully) is as clueless as opening an Ice Supply store at Scott Base.

In the face of stark facts and admissions of Peak Oil now portrayed by both Chevron (Will You Join Us.com) and ExxonMobil (In The Outlook for Energy: A 2030 View, the Irving, Texas-based company forecasts that oil production outside the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the cartel that controls three-quarters of the world's oil reserves, will reach its peak in just five years) ACT, United No Future and National are completely out of touch with what is occuring within the oil industry, and what the implications are for the McCrapola consumption driven disposable world we live in.

These cognitively dense, mostly unfit, overweight gits all assume either some cheaper more efficient alternative will be provided by the market, or that oil will drop back to US$20 a barrel and the good times will continue rolling. A vote for either of these parties is essentially the nod to waste billions of tax payer dollars on white asphalt elephants.

Oil at US$20 a barrel - Unfortunately it ain't never gonna happen again. There are alternatives to oil. You can peddle your bike to work, you can run your car on greasy chip oil, but none of the alternatives come at a cheaper price, nor are they more efficient than oil.

Oil is the pinnacle of the flawed supply side market ideology of endless substitution. There are no more efficient, cheaper alternatives. We've hit the top of the curve.

If as Colin Campbell suggests peak oil will occur around 2007, beyond then we will begin to experience structural supply deficits. NZ being at the end of the supply chain and no longer best buddies with the US and Australia can expect to experience shortages quickly.

Violence, no not in Iraq but at the petrol pump will be the first manifestations of serious problems. Dickhead politicians the vast majority of which have ignored the problem will begin jumping around like slaters in a frying pan appealing for calm and that they have the situation under control.

I applaud the Government and Transit NZ for pulling the plug on an exercise in complete stupidity (Transmission Gully). Not only would the NZ tax payer be still paying off this concrete ornament 15 years after no one can afford to drive on it but a billion dollars would have been spent in an attempt to increase suburban sprawl when it could have been put to far more productive future proof use (such as increasing intelligent sustainable transit options).

ACT (a historical and political curiosity after September), National and United (one term wonder) Future are men (and women) of a bygone era. An era of abundance. We need a new way of thinking about our world. A way of thinking that understands the relationship between energy, our economy and the way we live.

Voting for ACT, NZ Future or National at this years election is like shutting your eyes at a busy intersection as you pull out, hoping no one will hit you. These parties are still drunk on the excesses of the 90s. In denial about the present and totally clueless about creating a sustainable future for New Zealand.

Steve McKinlay
PowerLess NZ
c2005