Good Ol Josh. The Best Minister for Coal the lobbysists can buy.
Electricity is going to be so expensive soon, it will overtake housing as the single biggest burden on the average Australian household. That ls bad news for ordinary working mums and dads. But they’ll never be able to afford a home anyway. That’s why they’re ordinary. There is good news on the energy side. Kerosene, is terribly good at doing the work that gas used to do. And no one could discount the charm of the good old reliable kerosene heater. Then there’s oil. I’m sure some amongst us must yearn for the old reliable oil heater. And for those amongst of us who are truly bucolic, there’s the reliability of good old firewood. Firewood is just the thing for inner urban living, and wood fired ovens cook better roasts. This is not the end of civilisation . This is a whole new beginning, and it just shows how nuanced energy diversity will be in the twenty first century.
Energy Policy. What energy policy?Mr Adani is lurking in the background
Well that’s what Josh Frydenberg is telling us. He’s being quite sensible. In this new world we’ve just got to get used to a diversity of energy sources, and COAL is right up there on top of the list. Josh is also terribly sorry that electricity has all been sold off and it’ll be more expensive than platinum. But that’s just the trickle down effect of sensible energy policy and you can’t upset the free market. He tells us, with tears in his eyes, that literally, as we’re now global, we can only expect to pay trillions for the gas we produce in this country cos it’s a demonstration of the “Free Market’ at work. And a free market is good for us. There’s a rush on, as there’s upwards of eight new LNG plants opening up in the north and that’ll ensure that our overseas customers get the bounty of cheap plentiful gas. It’s great for those overseas companies, and those companies a little bit like Transurban and Shell, (to name just a couple) pay absolutely no tax.
Get it? They get what we used to get cheaply, for almost free. And the best thing is there’s no follow on for the government, we give it away because we want to demonstrate our free trade credentials.
And Mums and Dads and those amongst us who have gas powered refrigerators and dialysis machines will just have to take it up the choof. Speaking of ‘choof’ the Minerals and Energy Council want us to consider coal as a source of power for railways. ‘Choof Choof’ has a nostalgic ring to it, bit like our energy policy. And don’t be confused, renewables, as proven by the debacle in South Australia, are really really bad. Cheap non carbon energy is BAD. Rather pay through the nose than adopt a renewable energy policy with energy storage and new technologies that work.
And now, a fragment from the Conversation, this is interesting?
“First, as global citizens, we must recognise that most of our existing economic fossil fuel resources must stay in the ground. Developing more gas supply will just make it harder for Australia to transition to low-carbon energy over the next few decades.
Second, the problem is not about gas supply. It is about the allocation of gas and management of demand for gas and electricity. The recently opened Queensland LNG export plants are tripling eastern Australian gas demand.
What industry could cope with that scale of change without a few hiccups?
Eastern Australia has plenty of gas. The problem is that most of it is being exported at prices lower than some Australians are paying. And the price volatility resulting from the present shambles is making life difficult for some Australian industries”.
Who would have thought?