Back in 2008, Kevin Rudd announced a new ‘Green Car Plan’ which in his words would ‘make the automotive industry more economically and environmentally sustainable by 2020.’ As per much of what Kevin Rudd promised for 2020, things haven’t gone to plan. This week General Motors announced that it would retire the Holden brand by the end of this year. It is a useful reminder of the Tim Blair principle, that nothing green ever works. Like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, however, constant failure does not seem to stop constant trying. Read more

In 1970 Gough Whitlam welcomed the federal government’s announcement that it would finance the building of the Gladstone Power Station. Whitlam said “power was the determining factor in the development of natural resources in the area and the attraction of greater human resources to the area”. Read more

The richest man in Rome at the time of Julius Caesar was Marcus Licinius Crassus. Crassus made his fortune through many nefarious methods but one lowlight was his creation of the first fire brigade in Rome. Like any normal brigade his would rush to a fire but then things took a twist. Crassus would  offer to buy the homes in the path of the blaze for a fraction of their value. If the homeowner refused he would order his brigade to stand idle. Eventually, most homeowners would accept the low-ball offer to get something rather than nothing. Then his trucks would sweep in save the homes, and Crassus would make a small fortune. Read more

In Midland, Texas, the centre of the Permian Basin, an energy revolution is unfolding. At regular intervals, truckloads of diesel pumps roar into life and pump water down wells rich with oil and gas. Each of the three wells at the site extend for more than 3km in a horizontal direction. It would take you 30 minutes to walk the distance of a single well. Read more

The German historian Alexander Dermandt once catalogued 210 reasons that had been given for the fall of the Roman Empire. One was the depletion of its mineral resources. The silver of the Rio Tinto mines of Roman times was no doubt important to the longevity of the Pax Romana but minerals are even more important to our modern economy. Read more

Most fairy tales contain important life lessons and as the father of five children I have read my fair share of them. Take The Big Bad Wolf. He is a frightening figure that huffs and puffs. He does a great job at scaring the first two little pigs to run away. But no matter how much he tries, he can’t blow the third house down. Read more

Thanks to the British Raj, English has many words of Indian heritage. Avatar is not a highly grossing Hollywood movie, or something in your Twitter profile, it is a Hindi word that means descent. The word comes from Hindu teaching and describes the descent of Lord Vishnu to earth, which he performs on a regular basis, to re-establish the purity and happiness of the Golden Age. Read more

Tim Fischer’s penultimate speech in the House of Representatives was in response to a motion condemning the September 11 terrorist attacks. In that contribution Tim expressed his confidence that the “United States will recover from this human tragedy” and that he was “quietly confident that ... Australia would play its part ... and do so in honour of those who have died, been injured and been so seared in a direct way.” Read more

We need to ignore the doom-mongers and continue to build on the great Australian coal industry, taking it to even greater heights, writes federal Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Matt Canavan. Read more

Australia probably will create economic history later this year when we are likely to record our first current account surplus since 1975, all thanks to our record-breaking resource sector. Read more