From the always useless manufacturing lobby:
The nation’s biggest manufacturers have called for an electricity price target after energy giant AGL said replacing the Liddell coal-fired plant with a green energy mix would need power prices to be higher than they have been recently in NSW for a new plant to be profitable.
AGL at the weekend formally rejected Malcolm Turnbull’s request for the company to extend the life of the 45-year-old Hunter Valley plant beyond its planned 2022 closure, instead delivering a plan that could be committed to in stages over the next five years at a cost of $1.36 billion — if it was economical to do at the time.
Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler described the Liddell plan as a “stunning rejection of Malcolm Turnbull’s energy policy”.
“For customers, the only test that really matters is whether this plan actually lowers electricity prices, because anything less would be failing customers,” Manufacturing Australia chief Ben Eade told The Australian.
…“That price ($83) would categorically be too high for a number of sectors in manufacturing,” Mr Eade said. “It would still see us on the high side internationally, and in a country where our natural resources endowment is our competitive advantage, we ought to be able solve clean, reliable and affordable all together.”
I warned the lobbies not to split their resources between fighting gas prices and electricity prices when Hazelwood closed. The coal closures are inevitable and largely irrelevant to electricity prices.
Manufacturing should have only one target in its lobbying efforts and that is gas prices. They are being driven by an obvious blood-sucking cartel. They are the cause of higher electricity prices. And, of course, the gas price is an equal threat to input costs. The fix is bloody easy in policy terms and is already halfway in place: domestic reservation.
Forget electricity, you dills, target all resources on gas prices and getting Labor to strengthen domestic reservation with local quotas and price targets.
Then power prices fix themselves.
