Peak oil bid slump

By Tania Martin
THE Shire of Yarra Ranges has been divided over the need for a peak oil contingency response plan.
Lyster Ward councillor Samantha Dunn called for the plan at a council meeting recently.
The plan is expected to cost more than $20,000.
Cr Dunn said the issue had recently been raised at a Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) conference, alerting local government to the trends in peak oil and the issues of declining supplies across the world.
She said at worst oil supplies would start to diminish by 2013 and at best 2020. “I see this as a really critical issue for council considering we use oil in a range a ways in the shire… whether it’s meals on wheels or repairing roads there is a whole lot of different ways it will impact on us,” Cr Dunn said.
But councillors Richard Higgins, Graham Warren and Chris Templer disagreed, saying it wasn’t council’s responsibility to plan for such contingencies.
They believe it should be a State or Federal Government issue.
O’Shannassy Ward’s Cr Templer questioned whether the council could put in the man hours to get the work done.
“I would rather see those hours put into local government problems like the upcoming fire season,” he said at the 8 September meeting.
Chandler Ward’s Warren said it was a world-wide issue that should be dealt with by other levels of government.
“It’s a global issue that should have a global solution and we are already putting a lot of money into reducing our carbon footprint and planting trees,” he said.
“We should be concentrating on things within our realm to do.”
Cr Warren believes the council’s role in the peak oil issue was to advocate for State and Federal government to step in and make those contingency plans. “I would hate to see more man hours spent on a plan that really we can’t do something about,” he said.
But Cr Dunn said it was a matter of risk management.
“There is a range of impacts for us and to think the State or Federal governments are going to come up with a plan for us is fantasy land,” she said.
The decision divided the council with Crs Dunn, Avery, Heenan and Cox voting for the plan and Templer, Higgins and Warren against.
The council voted to refer the cost of the plan to the mid-year budget review.