The spectacularly biased Peta Credlin wrote and a great piece about Labor energy failures yesterday.
Quite apart from all the other problems that the Albanese government has created or exacerbated – the record migration-driven pressures on housing costs and supply, wage suppression and infrastructure overload; the productivity-crushing advances to union power; the green veto on almost all new resources projects; the explosion of Jew-hatred on our streets; and the reinforcement of indoctrination over education in our schools – this energy insanity alone should be enough to hound the Albanese government from office in disgrace.
That this promise was always utterly implausible gives Labor no “get out of jail” card. Rather, it only compounds the elemental idiocy of a government that made a no “ifs” and no “buts” commitment to cutting power prices that it must have known was false.
After all, shortly after becoming minister, the government’s chief climate evangelist Chris Bowen proudly likened the energy transition to a second industrial revolution: requiring the installation of 22,000 solar panels every single day and the erection of 40 large wind turbines every single month for eight years – plus the construction of at least 10,000km of new transmission lines – to meet the 2030 target of 82 per cent renewable energy.
The notion that this gargantuan commitment could be funded while power prices fell rather than skyrocketed was always an absurdity (as absurd is giving such a critical portfolio to Bowen after his manifest failures as border protection minister in the Rudd-Gillard era).
Err, no it wasn’t. How is it that massive amounts of new, free electricity supply would cause huge bill shocks?
It shouldn’t.
What went wrong, went wrong with gas. The firming power we need when the renewable supply falls away for whatever reason.
Labor’s failure to allow the Ukraine War profiteering of the East Coast gas cartel after 2022.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I 100% agree with Credlin that Labour should be voted out for this catastrophic failure to tackle the gas export cartel.
But because Credlin blames the wrong culprit, her solution is ridiculous and politicised.
The only one way to end this doom spiral into energy poverty and economic stagnation is to change the government to one that will not need the Greens or teals to survive and to bring nuclear power into Australia’s grid. Because if it doesn’t happen this time, it won’t happen.
Really? Nuclear is a pipe dream answer (for Australia, not necessarily elsewhere). Far distant, hugely expensive, and requiring immense public outlay.
All we need is cheap gas to support renewables, and electricity prices will crater. Who will give us that?
ALP. No, they are terrified of the cartel.
LNP. No, they will make it worse by pretending they can make the cartel “drill baby drill” when there is no incentive to do so. Moreover, they’ll delay renewables, which reduces new supply. And they’ll remove the bill rebates plus the ADGSM while LNG imports begin delivering an energy shock larger than the Ukraine War.
Greens. Yep. Sure, they want to limit new gas developments. But they have also committed to an Australia First domestic reservation for gas on the east coast. If that is combined with an export levy, electricity prices will crash and budget revenue boom.
This is while we wait for the killer app of future electricity to roll out: renewables plus batteries.
In short, ironically, voting for The Greens is your best bet for lower electricity prices.
