The energy superpower turned superidiot is on display again today:
South Australia has signalled it is seeking to capitalise on Victoria’s anti-gas energy policy and high taxes, targeting its neighbouring fellow Labor state with an advertising campaign to lure companies across the border.
South Australian Treasurer Stephen Mullighan has joined Premier Peter Malinauskas in declaring Victoria’s decision to ban gas connections to new homes “makes no sense”, days after Australia’s largest gas-heating manufacturer, Seeley International, announced it was moving 125 jobs from the NSW-Victoria border to its Adelaide headquarters.
Mr Mullighan’s comments come as the head of Victoria’s chamber of commerce, Paul Guerra, told The Australian businesses in his state were “on the edge”, doubling down on his warning at a business lunch on Friday that if the Allan government “cannot guarantee that the lights remain on in this state, then I can guarantee that many businesses will find places other than Victoria to set up.”
The Victorian policy of disconnecting households from gas doesn’t decarbonise anything because it is shifting energy demand to VIC’s brown coal monsters, which the government is propping up until 2030 and 2040 in secret deals that undoubtedly ream taxpayers.
This filthy brown coal fixation is why VIC has the cheapest electricity futures in the nation:
I’m not sure what SA is crowing about, either. Its largely renewable grid is firmed by gas generation, so it has no energy advantage over VIC with higher power costs and the same gas prices.
But, as you can see, this is not about policy. Like everything else these days, it is about virtue signalling.
Meanwhile, further north, NSW is taking a leaf out of VIC’s book, turning to coal to support the end of coal:
The planned retirement of Australia’s largest coal-fired power station will be delayed as Origin Energy holds talks with the NSW government to keep the Eraring plant open beyond August 2025, easing the prospect of blackouts hitting electricity consumers.
Eraring, which supplies more than 25 per cent of NSW’s electricity needs, is due to shutter as early as August 2025 – though an independent expert last year concluded the state Labor government would need to strike a deal to safeguard electricity supplies.
More than six months into the talks, The Australian understands both sides are confident that a deal will be struck, although progress is limited to a point where a deal could be some weeks if not months away.
Another taxpayer reaming incoming. But note that, even so, NSW power futures are at nosebleed levels because:
New South Wales has the largest gap between its 2030 emissions reduction goals and the present pace of renewables rollout among the states, a performance that will make it harder for Australia to meet national goals unless addressed, a new report argues.
The report, by Green Energy Markets, said NSW’s legislated electricity infrastructure roadmap indicates the state would need to generate 33,600 gigawatt hours of renewable energy from projects in place by the end of 2029.
On this score, NSW was less than halfway to its goal with forecast output from projects already committed or contracted at about 12,911GWh as of the end of 2023. Those projects amounted to just over 6GW of capacity, leaving the state with almost 7.5GW more in wind and solar farms needed to hit the target.
NSW has no gas as corruption, pollution concerns and lawfare dog its only possible project:
An Australian indigenous group on Thursday won a legal challenge on appeal against Santos’ (STO.AX), opens new tab A$3.6 billion ($2.37 billion) gas extraction project near the town of Narrabri, raising the risk of delay to what could be a major growth driver.
The Federal Court of Australia ruled in favour of the Gomeroi People in an appeal against a 2022 decision by a Native Title Tribunal, which approved the project and concluded its benefits outweighed concerns it would damage the traditional owner’s culture, land and waters and worsen climate change.
Finally, QLD, which has only sun all day and more cheap gas in the ground than anywhere else, is also mired in permacrisis.
The renewables rollout is a little ahead of target, but the self-starvation of gas means an extended reliance on broken-down coal, which will also turn into subsidies given that is the market benchmark now.
And while it does, politics turns to the absurd:
Regional Queensland would play a central role in a nuclear energy future for Australia, with former coal power station sites tapped by the Coalition as strong contenders to locate new small modular reactors.
The state government has rubbished any suggestion of Queensland producing nuclear power, but the federal Opposition has been working on a plan to explore the option.
Coalition climate change and energy spokesman Ted O’Brien said experts agreed retiring coal fired plants were “one of the best places” to locate a small modular reactor, but insisted local community wishes would be at the “centre” of any nuclear debate.
Except for the tiny problem that small modular reactors don’t exist, and if you want to upscale to the real thing, expect the taxpayer reaming to go exponential.
Canberra could fix all of this superstupid with the stroke of a pen by demanding that 15% of the East Coast gas currently exported be reserved for Australia.
Which the glutted Asian export market would not even notice.
