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Oil Company Breaks Cover - accepts oil problems exist

Chevron launched http://www.willyoujoinus.com/ on Tuesday 5th July. This is an energy awareness campaign. They make no prediction as to when global supply will peak, they merely recognise the problem.

The big difficulty with predicting when it will peak is that there will only be certainty a few years afterwards. It is, therefore, difficult to be precise. Colin Campbell makes a prediction in his newsletter for Conventional Crude oil of 2006. With prices almost four times what they were in the late 1990s people will pump what they can. There are questions asked about the Gharwar field in Saudia Arabia. People such as Powerswitch are already campaigning on the issue.

The Uppsala Protocol is much tougher to hit than the Kyoto protocol (Kyoto ignores international air flight).

To me the challenge is to get the debate into the mainstream. There is an assumption even amongst organisations such as Greenpeace and FoE that oil depletion is not an issue. It is true that there remain other fossil supplies such as coal, but for the first time in human history we are going into a phase of having to replace fuel supplies with less convenient fuel supplies. The historic trend of wood, charcoal, coal, oil, gas where each step is in some way more convenient will start reversing (wood is a good base for biofuels).

I am issuing two press releases today:
Hemming Welcomes Chevron Challenge
Contact: John Hemming hemmingj@parliament.uk
7th July 2005

John Hemming MP for Birmingham (Yardley) has welcomed a new website about Oil Depletion, which has been set up by the oil company Chevron.

“The issue of Oil Depletion and the question as to when will be the year of peak production is something that oil companies have – until now – avoided discussing.”

“It is a major step forward for Chevron to have created a website which deals with these issues.”

John Hemming has also tabled an Early Day Motion about Oil Depletion:

EDM419 SUPPLIES OF CONVENTIONAL CRUDE OIL
That this House calls on the Government to recognise the increasing evidence for a global peak in conventional oil production in the near future, noting that this event means that global oil supplies will begin to decline terminally and that in turn an increase in global oil demand will not be met, that unconventional oil and alternative fuels will not be able fully to meet the growing gap between supply and demand and thus that will be the end of cheap and abundant oil with ever more challenging consequences for transport, agriculture, employment, the financial system, peace and security; and calls for the Government to acknowledge that as a peak in production is inevitable it must begin planning now.
(currently 10 signatures see edmi.parliament.uk for further information)

and

Top ten toilet vandals revealed
Contact: John Hemming MP hemmingj@parliament.uk
BTA: Richard Chisnell enquiries@britloos.co.uk
7th July 2005

The top ten authorities for vandalising public toilets have been flushed out by a parliamentary question asked by John Hemming MP for Birmingham (Yardley).

Comparing the number of public toilets in an authority in 2002 and the number of public toilets in the same authority in 2004, it has been possible to work out what proportion of public toilets have closed.

The London Borough of Hillingdon comes out as the country’s top toilet terror having closed 11 of their 18 public toilets, leaving less than 40% open. Second is Thurrock, closing 43% from 14 to 8. The London Borough of Barnet is third with a cut from 12 to 7.

Mansfield from 10 down to 6, Calderdale 29 to 18, Havant 11 to 7, North Kesteven 11 to 7, West Wiltshire 11 to 7, Bexley 15 to 10, and Brent 9 to 6 follow closely behind in the league, cutting at least a third of their conveniences.

“This is not just inconvenient”, said Mr Hemming, “this causes substantial problems for many people who have to plan their days based upon what facilities are available.”

“The blame for this situation has to rest primarily with the government, however. They have created a situation in which they force Local Authorities to respond to central targets – and there is no “toilet target”. It is new Labour’s fault that the toilets are going down the drain.”

“The answer, however, is not to introduce “toilet targets”, but instead to reduce the number of targets so that Local Authorities can respond more to Local Needs.”

John Hemming is working with the British Toilet Association to ensure that the importance of public toilets is recognised.

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