If only virtue signalling generated power. Australia would have the cheapest energy in the world.
On the one hand, we have the fake left furiously signalling virtue via The Guardian’s nauseating Greg Jericho:
But you might think we need more gas, because we are about to run out.
Sorry, no.
The reality that needs to be tattooed on everyone’s eyeballs is that Australia has more than enough gas.
The most recent gas statement of opportunities report notes that about 72% of Australia’s gas heads overseas – including around 23Mt from Gladstone in 2023.
…Last year the foreign minister, Penny Wong, berated the opposition and the Greens in the Senate for voting against a massive expansion of the gas industry: “You know what you’ve been doing? You said no to Santos. You then said no to Woodside. You’ve said no to Inpex.”
But with the Coalition now calling for nuclear power and throwing around laughable concept art of reactors that will never be, the government can look good by comparison.
It is free to ensure fossil fuels are released with excess abandon, with little media scrutiny and with less recompense to the Australian citizens who own the gas and will suffer greatly from the climate change caused by their emissions.
There is nothing wrong with Australian gas exports if they displace coal. That is helping lower emissions. Asia needs gas as a transitional fuel as well.
The problem is that we don’t hold enough gas back for ourselves, crushing industry, as well as spiking power costs and inflation for everybody else.
Enter the equally nauseating fake right at The Australian:
Anthony Albanese’s claims that billions of dollars in cost-of-living measures are helping fight inflation are in tatters, after new figures revealed a shock jump in consumer price growth that economists say could force the Reserve Bank to deliver another rate hike as early as August.
Cost of living relief does not land until July. This is a simple spruik for the nuclear fantasy.
The truth of it is in the middle. Australian gas has a great future if only we would domestically reserve enough to put our own energy transition back on track.
On that front, the local spot gas market is still meaningfully above Albo’s $12Gj price cap joke at $14.40:
Leading spot electricity prices down, while the quarterly moving average will climb for weeks yet:
The two sides of the debate are fatefully compromised by their chosen political allegiance.
