Pass the popcorn. With policy action now inevitable on energy prices, Australia’s most evil enterprises are turning on one another:
The Minerals Council of Australia, which counts coal miners such as Glencore, Whitehaven and BHP among its membership, on Wednesday rejected the suggestion that capping coal prices would lower energy bills, and blamed the price of gas for setting higher electricity costs.
“Coal is not the problem here, and it is misleading to suggest otherwise,” Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable said.
Constable said coal’s share of the east coast generation mix was shrinking, while renewables such as wind, solar and hydro continued to grow.
“As a result, renewable and gas generation set the price in Australia’s electricity market,” Constable said.
Call the whaaaambulance. In the AEMO bid stack, renewables bid zero so how are they setting the price? Gas sets the price when it is needed but sometimes it is not.
The evidence is clear. NSW and QLD are much more dependent on black coal for power and over this year have averaged roughly $40MWh higher prices than VIC, SA and TAS which have none of it:
Coal prices are up even more than gas:
Completing Big Coal’s really bad day, the global price is now crashing as well:
It’s great to watch the interests rip at each other, though, so keep it up!
Meanwhile, the Evil Gas Cartel is also dialing 000whaaambulance, helped along by the truly sick AFR:
Massive compensation claims loom over the Albanese government’s gas market intervention, with lawyers warning price caps and windfall profit taxes could lead to legal action under trade agreements.
But despite multinational energy giants being the most aggressive users of treaties to launch legal actions against countries, ministers are split over the prospect of a lengthy and expensive battle with gas investors.
…Senior government sources told The Australian Financial Review the use of ISDS clauses was a major factor is how it would decide to address surging gas prices, but Industry Minister Ed Husic rubbished the suggestion.
“There is absolutely no ISDS risk, and it’s just a self-serving line being put out by the gas exporters,” he said.
Fear, ye, Australia. Fear!
Or don’t. Just put in the policy and declare force majeur. The Ukraine War is a classic case of an extraordinary event. Or, fight them in court. Whatever it costs it will be worth it to break the cartel.
Or, just pay attention to the crashing gas price. Now at the lowest point since the war started to get a feel for how cowardly this cartel really is:
There’s still more flatulence at the ailing AFR:
Santos and Woodside Energy will rake in billions of dollars of extra profits this year due to the war in Ukraine, but analysts say the gas producers are only now offsetting earlier heavy losses rather than making the “obscene profits” they have been accused of.
…But consultancy EnergyQuest has calculated that the results for the gas producers do not amount to a windfall profit if assessed over 10 years.
Why not make 20 years or 40? The entire notion is drivel. The cartel over-invested in gas export infrastructure to gouge the local market. By doing so, in the first few years, they helped crash the global price, and profits cratered. And? Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Illogic and unreason are now the AFR’s stock in trade, so long as it favours some foreign billionaire.
Not so the Australian people, who have woken up to the fact that they are on the wrong end of the greatest theft in history:
Australians overwhelmingly back government intervention in the energy sector to bring down prices, with a new poll finding support for limits on exports and a super profits tax on gas companies.
As the government confirms that “all options are on the table”, new polling from the Australia Institute shows that 86% of those surveyed support the government stepping in, either through export controls or a windfall profits tax, or both.
The findings from the survey of 1001 people, undertaken last week, comes after the Treasury secretary, Steven Kennedy, also backed the need for intervention in the energy sector. Kennedy said the war-induced price shock required a temporary response that was not inflationary.
…Support was strong across political lines, with 84% of Coalition voters backing export controls, 83% of Greens voters and 78% of Labor voters. It was also consistent regardless of state, with support in the four biggest states ranging from 78% in NSW to 82% in Queensland.
Over to you Albo’s cowards. Try not to fuck it up this time.
