Via Domainfax:
The Turnbull government has given the east coast gas giants one last chance to free up enough fuel for the domestic market or be hit with export controls, after two new reports showed the predicted shortfall to be three times worse than originally thought.
And the government will redouble efforts to convince NSW, Victoria and the Northern Territory to rethink their opposition to the extraction of onshore gas.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he would meet again ths week with the chief executives of Santos, Origin Energy and Shell.
This follows the receipt of separate reports from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Energy Market Operator, which warned there was a significant risk of a gas shortfall in the eastern states over the next two years, three times worse than thought just six months ago.
“We expect them to demonstrate to us what they have already indicated in meetings and in writing that they will ensure that there is not a shortage of gas next year on the east coast,” he said.
“If they are able to do that, and to the satisfaction of the ACCC, then the foreshadowed export control mechanism will have done its work.
“But we will continue to hold that mechanism ready to go, and we will ensure that it is entirely fit-for-purpose in light of these changed circumstances that is a much bigger shortage than previously advised so that if we are not able to receive the assurances from the industry to our satisfaction and that of the ACCC, then we will impose those export controls.”
For God’s sake, just apply the controls. It’s a bloody great cartel driving a national security crisis. The commercial equivalent of being invaded by a foreign power and having it steal your resources. This is not inflamed rhetoric. It’s true!
Break the cartel with:
- larger domestic reservation;
- harsh lose it or lose it laws for reserves;
- a domestically-focused national gas company to force acquire or expropriate reserves as required and develop them in ways that assuage community anxiety about fracking, as well as benchmark prices in the market via mandated margins;
- price controls where necessary and tougher pipeline regulation.
Get on with it, Do-nothing.
