The United States, home of free enterprise and deep climate change scepticism, continues to school Australia on the energy transition.
It is doing so with one simple trick that Australia’s east coast has missed: gas domestic reservation.
US power is guzzling gas:
While killing coal at astonishing speed:
With rock bottom gas prices:
And record inventories:
As well as record exports!
Some will say it is all the shale revolution. But it isn’t. The unconventional gas revolution delivered Australia a proportionally higher increase in gas reserves than the US.
The difference is regulation.
The US hand approves each LNG export project to ensure there is ample gas for the local economy.
Australia does not.
And so, the US, Trump and all, is kicking our filthy arses on decarbonbisation:
If Australia were to impose East Coast domestic gas reservation to 15% of exports—only 5% of the nation’s total gas exports—we would instantly be back on the path to accelerated clean, reliable, and cheap energy.
It is the only solution that makes sense.
