Thanks, East Coast Gas Cartel.
The global energy price crash has turned wonderfully unruly as a gas glut builds worldwide. Everywhere you look, seasonal inventories are brimming over after a warm northern hemisphere winter.
- The Asian gas price is today $9.80Gj netback, amid a glut:
- The European price is $9.50Gj netback, amid a glut:
- The US gas price is $2.40Gj, amid a glut:
But in Australia, where a lot of the world’s gas comes from, costing $1Gj or less to extract in cash terms, the price is still near Albo’s $12Gj price “cap”, which has magically transformed into a price “floor” being used to gouge Australians blind:
Which is, in turn, driving electricity prices 70-80% higher than they should be in the middle of an inflation crisis:
The Albanese Government can instantly stop this criminal gouge by the East Coast Gas Cartel.
Resource Minister Mad King has the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM) at her disposal, which can demand more gas be injected into the local network to lower prices.
Instead, the gas-cartel-captured King is busy doing the Cartel’s dirty work:
Proposed changes to the way the oil and gas industry is regulated would sideline federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek by stripping her office of the power to oversee the offshore petroleum industry.
The changes – the first bill the government has introduced to parliament in 2024 – are buried in an uncontroversial series of amendments to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006. The rest of the bill mostly concerns improvements to worker safety.
A provision within this bill, however, proposes to remove the federal environment minister’s responsibility for overseeing the offshore oil and gas industry’s operations where their activities fall under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
The changes are highly technical but broadly concern the way approvals are carried out and overseen by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority, which operates with delegated authority from the environment minister.
If passed, the amendments will mean the environment minister is automatically assumed to agree with any regulatory changes made by the resources minister concerning directions to NOPSEMA on how it makes decisions during approval processes.
Because Mad King is so busy doing the cartel’s bidding, we have insufficient gas to back up renewables and are reverting to coal:
Leading energy chief executives argue a coal safety net to smooth the exit away from fossil fuel generation will keep the supply of power reliable and affordable, as 2030 climate targets are frustrated by the insufficient pace of new sources of renewables and transmission.
Alinta Energy’s Jeff Dimery said that the rate of clean energy projects being developed is well below where it needs to be to reach the transition goals, which include 82 per cent renewable energy across the National Electricity Market in 2030, and 95 per cent in Victoria by 2035.
Without putting too fine a point on it, Resources Minister Mad King must immediately smash gas and electricity prices lower with the ADGSM.
Or be arrested and tried for treason.
