Via the AFR comes Qenos:
…gas is not just about energy. Gas is also a raw material, a building block for creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs within value-adding industries. Our nation produces more than 5000 petajoules of gas each year. Remarkably, one petajoule of gas supports 1600 Australian chemical industry jobs and contributes about $300 million to the economy.
…According to the NCCC, making the equivalent of just 3 per cent of the current LNG export volumes available domestically will unlock hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs for Australians.
As well as making gas more accessible, the NCCC also recognises that gas needs to be cheaper.
…The commission’s vision of a competitive market, with gas at $4 a gigajoule, would create circumstances where local industry could thrive in the longer term, but only if an immediate transition plan is put in place.
Only one plan will deliver $4Gj gas and the NCCC does not have it in the near term. It is gas reservation with a price cap.
The alternative paths of LNG imports and locally produced unconventional gas will leave the price for most gas at around $10Gj over the cycle. This includes Narrabri which is produced by an export cartelier who will manipulate the price and is expensive anyway.
The Government has agreed to toughen the existing reservation mechanism using a price trigger with Centre Alliance in return for support for $158bn in tax cuts.
But that deal appears to have quietly collapsed with ScoMo abandoning CA at the alter for a cheap motel and bending over for the gas cartel instead.
