Continuing today’s energy theme, from the AFR comes PMT in response to the 61 coal-concerned latte sippers:
“Coal is a very important part, a very large part, the largest single part of the global energy mix and likely to remain that way for a very long time…Having said that, the pace of technological development in the renewable space has been extraordinary. The pace of improvement in the efficiency of solar panels has been quite remarkable and of course what we’re starting to see is affordable storage which has always been the problem with intermittent renewables, that is to say things like wind and solar only generate power when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.”
…Asked about nuclear, Mr Turnbull said “some people talk about different forms of energy in an ideological way, as though one type of coal is better or worse wind which is better or worse than solar which is better or worse than nuclear power”.
“The appropriate – the way to deal with this is to be thoroughly rational about it and to say the object is to make sure we have access to all of the energy we need at the cheapest possible price because energy is a major input. So we have to be cost effective.”
All true and and nicely put. The problem is that the market has no way of determining which technology is the winner so long as the various externalities, such as the cost for carbon pollution, are not in the cost of energy.
And so our good PMT can make lots of sense but can’t actually do anything except manage the various petitioners and nudge around the rent seekers, the very opposite of what liberal capitalism is supposed to be about (thanks Abbottalypse).
If you want efficiency, innovation and disruption, you need a carbon price, PMT.
