For ten years, MB has demanded East Coast gas reservation, painstakingly describing why it is necessary no matter what side of politics or the renewable/nuclear divide you stand on.
Throughout, we have watched in astonishment as the MSM failed to join these basic dots, either not discussing it or falling in behind party political lines, and never realising that it, as an industry, the media is directly in the firing line if Australia fails to secure its own gas.
None of this is theory, forecasting or prediction any more. It is now a fact, and the MSM still can’t join the dots even as it dies of it.
On the Left, we have renewable junkies that think energy grows on trees.
On the Right, we have the supply-siders who refuse to acknowledge that the problem is market structure, not public policy.
The Australian is demanding more supply.
Having talked the talk, Ms King and Labor must deliver. The government must stare down noisy opposition from academic and protest groups to its gas ambitions and get things done. Getting results for the long-delayed Narrabri project in NSW and removing the Victorian government’s chokehold on onshore gas exploration and production would be a good start.
Sure, but nobody knows the extent of VIC onshore gas. It will take many years to find out and extract what is there.
The Herald Sun via Andrew Bolt is demanding more supply no matter where.
On Friday, Industry Minister Ed Husic said he was stopping Asset Energy from exploring for gas off the NSW Central Coast – near the marginal seats of Robertson, Mackellar and Warrigah, held by Labor and Teals.
What political maniac would OK gas directly offshore the sparkling beaches of Sydney et al? FFS.
Whatever paltry gas there is in NSW and VIC should be developed. But we already know where the big volumes are, in QLD.
This gas should and would have been developed for Australian use, as well as Asian, but LNG exporters overbuilt capacity and have established a local supply cartel sitting on 90% of reserves.
This is the real problem. The gas export cartel must be broken.
No amount of new supply will do it. The cartel will shuffle its assets so that cheap gas goes to Asia while expensive stays in Australia.
No amount of LNG imports will do it. That will simply allow the export cartel to export more and price everything locally at import parity.
Today that price is $24Gj minimum. Double what most of us are currently paying.
This will deliver an immense inflation shock to finish off industry, choke household consumption, lift the cash rate price deck, and destroy the real estate industry upon which media depends.
In short, it is another huge leg down in the living standards destruction Australians have been subjected to for the past three years.
Don’t be fooled by the idea that international prices are going to fall and imports of gas get cheaper. Sure, there’s a big supply wave coming. But there is also a massive demand wave as geopolitics reshapes Europe
Opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who is tipped to be Germany’s next chancellor, has vowed to build 50 gas-fired power plants if his conservatives win the Feb. 23 snap election, the t-online news outlet reported on Sunday.
How do we fix it? Simple.
Domestically reserve more QLD gas. Expropriate it if you have to. Apply an export levy above $7Gj to control the local price.
Build more southern storage tanks and run gas south over the off-season months. These pipelines are empty right now, except those siphoning to China.
All that is missing is the will.
