August 17, 2000 -- Australians could be travelling in vehicles powered by methanol produced from plantations of trees that cover 30 million hectares of the nation's croplands and
high-rainfall pasture zones within the next 50 years.

This was the scenario painted by Barney Foran of CSIRO, Australia's national research agency, at an international conference on greenhouse gas control
technologies in Cairns, Australia, August 16, 2000. Foran was reporting on work commissioned by the National Dryland Salinity Program.

"Planting deep-rooted trees will also help control problems such as dryland salinity, will create employment in rural Australia and help replace future energy
imports," Foran said. "Using methanol will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 400 million tonnes (metric tons) a year within the next 50 years compared to
continuing
'business as usual'. That's about as much as emitted by the energy sector today in 2000."

CSIRO used a computer model to show that 30 million hectares of trees planted over the next 50 years could produce methanol to gradually replace liquid fuels
currently produced from crude oil and its derivatives. The model assumes that the population grows to 25 million by 2050 and food exports are maintained at
current levels, and that renewable energy and more efficient electricity production continue to be implemented to reflect government policies on greenhouse gas
emissions.

"We looked at the production of methanol that would be needed to meet 90 percent of Australia's total oil requirements and all of its transportation needs," Foran
said. "Methanol would be produced from the 'biomass' of forests growing under a 20-year rotation at a rate of 20 cubic meters a year.

"Plantations would need to be established at the rate of 400,000 hectares a year costing about $2,500 a hectare," he added. "We also assumed that the cost of a
biomass electricity plant would be about one and half times the cost of a traditional electricity plant on a megawatt basis."

Using this scenario, researchers found that there would be only slightly lower growth rates of gross domestic product (GDP) with a methanol economy due to
increased capital expenditure for the biomass electricity plants and the methanol fuel production system.

"However, a methanol economy would successfully 'decarbonize' economic growth in Australia and also help restore degraded areas of land in Australia," Foran
said.

The model's scenario also predicted the generation of 100,000 direct jobs by 2020 and more than 400,000 by 2050 with the new methanol economy. Most of these
jobs would be in rural areas of Australia. The model also predicts that there could be a total saving on energy imports by 2050 on the order of $18 billion in
today's currency, if oil is priced at US $25 a barrel.

Foran said a number of issues still needed to be investigated before this becomes a reality. "What are the effects of plantations of single tree species on our
biodiversity?" he asked. "We also need to know whether we are ready for such radical changes to our economy from both a political and social point of view."