Ideology Trumps Common Sense

It's said a picture is worth a thousand words. Take a look at these graphs and see if you can make any sense of the government's response to oil prices rising and it's transport policy. Damned if I can.
(hat tip to Auckland Transport blog and frog blog)

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Oil Price Response Plan For New Zealand Ignored

Prime Minister John Key's only response to rapidly rising oil prices has been to say "the government is powerless - there is nothing we can do". Not so. A 2008 report commissioned by the New Zealand Transport Authority sets out a comprehensive blueprint as to how both central and local government can at low cost, reduce New Zealand's dependence on imported oil, with huge economic benefits to the economy and consumers. The independent report is entitled "Managing Transport Challenges When Oil Prices Rise".

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Do Saudis have spare capacity? And why your standard of living hinges on it.

The conventional response to a supply disruption like from Libya is -- no worries, the Saudis have heaps of oil and can immediately pump more to take up the slack. But do they? And what happens to oil prices if they can't?

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Earthquake $NZ5 Billion – Oil Quake More?

The Christchurch earthquake is estimated to cost the government $5 billion in tax revenue. GDP will fall by 1.5% in 2011, as a result of the quake alone.

While attention is understandably focused on Christchurch, an oil quake is beginning to shake the foundations of New Zealand's economy. The economic impact of an oil shock (or series of shocks) could well prove to be substantially greater, and more long-lasting than those arising from the Christchurch quake.

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N Z's oil policy based on flawed forecasts

Independent oil experts have been saying for many years that the New Zealand government's almost religious reliance on forecasts of the International Energy Agency (IEA) is a big mistake because they have been consistently and grossly over optimistic. The result has been a decade of lost opportunities to prepare for the looming oil shocks and shortages.

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Oil prices were rising steeply before the unrest in the Middle East

Here is the best analysis I have found about what’s been happening on the global oil scene.

It also confirms that peak oil pundits like Canadian economist Jeff Rubin, and Richard Heinberg and dozens of others, have been uncannily accurate.

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