Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Marquee, is about as as conflicted as any analyst in Australian commentary.
The teals and Greens are sheltered from the realities of our regions and industries that drive our economy. Under a minority government, their ideologically-driven energy agenda risks taking us further away from engineering realities. They will continue to push for the simple sounding “more renewables, less fossil fuels” policies, without learning the lesson from Spain’s unprecedented blackouts: a high renewables penetration is not stable without sufficient investment in network services to keep up with it. Of course, a minority government’s environmental policies will hinder much needed network investment from occurring, too.
Exhibiting a unique level of cowardice, Labor has already shunted its signature gas policy within a week of making it because of Greens pressure in the Senate. We should expect the teals and Greens to hold any other sensible Labor energy policies hostage in parliament with increased frequency and severity under a minority government. The damage of the last few years may pale in comparison to what comes next.
This is largely bunkum. The Greens energy policy is pretty good and certainly better than Labor’s. Ditto for some of the Teals.
Although many want to block future coal and gas projects, which is a defensible position given that shipped LNG is as dirty as coal when fugitive emissions are accounted for, many (including Greens) want to impose gas reservation upon eastern Australia.
That is immensely in the national interest and will restore, not worsen, our energy advantage if the right mechanisms are used. Ironically, Peter Dutton’s model of using export levies and use it or lose it laws is a good one.
Nor will “no new projects” be able to be applied to eastern gas production, which is largely unconventional and, therefore, drills new holes every day.
In short, if managed right, Teal and Green energy policies will result in cheaper and more readily available eastern gas, making the grid more, not less, stable, unlike Spain.
All that has gone wrong with the energy transition is gas.
Fix that, you fix everything.
