Dick Ahlstrom travels forward in time to report on the latest ministerial efforts to keep the country moving as the oil runs out
Dateline, Dublin 2012:
The Minister for Energy has renewed Government warnings that international oil supplies are dwindling and could soon run out.
He encouraged greater use of public transport, and said that the current ban on both sports utility vehicles and on single occupancy electric vehicles commuting into the capital would remain.
The minister was speaking yesterday after a series of meetings with oil industry representatives. The meeting was chaired by oil supremo, the Commissioner for Oil, Gas and Energy Resources, Kevin Power, and was also attended by lobbies including the SIMI, Road Haulage Association and commuter lobby Keep the Wheels Turning.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, the minister, Sinn Féin's Finn O'Loughlin said he had organised the discussions given the slow progress in the opening of hydrogen gas "filling stations" suited to the new fuel cell powered commuter vehicles.
The ready availability of hydrogen supplies, needed by the new fuel cell cars, was a key plank in the programme for government backed by the Labour/Green Party/Sinn Féin coalition in last June's election.
"The oil companies have got to understand we will not tolerate foot-dragging on this issue," said O'Loughlin yesterday. "They had promised to allow combination filling for non-urban electric/diesel hybrids and also for the hydrogen-based fuel cell models. We will continue to pressure them until hydrogen fuel is readily available to motorists across the country," he added.
He also warned that the Competition Authority along with the energy Commissioner would ensure against what he described as "anti-competitive pricing and control of supply" exerted by the oil companies at their fuel stations.
After the meeting the oil companies vigorously denied that they were attempting to restrict the hydrogen supplies needed by the new fuel cell powered commuter vehicles.
They also rejected claims that they were using anti-competitive measures against the growing number of independent so-called "green hydrogen" suppliers who use roof-mounted solar cells to produce hydrogen gas supplies using free solar cell electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
"We do not see these greenies as a competitive threat," stated Montgomery Naughton, spokesman for the oil company group. "We view them as a valuable secondary supply of hydrogen gas for the minister's favoured alternative fuel source," he added.
He acknowledged that the companies had been under pressure since the beginning of 2012 when a barrel of oil topped $192, the psychological "trigger price" that had caused the world stock market crash of 2010.
Naughton denied that the companies were "profiteering" at this level given higher production costs associated with oil fields such as the Rockall Enterprise platforms or the very expensive Porcupine Basin Discovery fields which were opened in 2011.
"We can continue to supply oil-based fuels for some years to come for the hybrid motoring market," said Naughton. "The electric/diesel alternative is a far greener technology than the simplistic fuel cell approach, which does not really deliver motoring as we remember it," he added.
His view was later backed by the lobby group Keep the Wheels Turning (KWT). The group has made no secret of its disagreement with the SUV ban, describing it as a "sop to the Green Party" from coalition partners in the Labour Party.
"Taking SUVs off the roads was a travesty," stated KWT chairwoman Imelda McDonald. "The new electric/diesel hybrid SUVs had pushed fuel economy to new heights at 35 kilometres per litre," she stated. "How much fuel economy does the oil supremo want," she added, in a disparaging reference to the Commissioner.
The Commissioner remained implacable after the meeting, however. "The SUV ban will remain in place and we will continue to press the oil companies for more co-operation on the hydrogen supply issue," he added.
He also defended his decision, taken earlier this year, to introduce a ban on single occupancy vehicles, even the new so-called "mini-electrics" going into urban centres. He controversially extended the ban as far out in Dublin as the proposed new third C-ring linking Drogheda and Arklow via Portlaoise.
"The mini-electrics are a valuable back-up to our public transport network," he stated.
"I will not allow them into the cities, however, without full occupancy. If I let them all in where would they park? Dublin's three million inhabitants have made it clear that those outside the second C-ring and proposed third won't be welcome on their streets."