From Renegade Economist comes the fantastic Bruce Robertson (IEEFA) on how Australia destroyed its own energy markets: We discuss policies to reduce gas prices as per international best practice. In light of further consolidation in the industry, we discuss how gas sets the baseline price for energy production in the nation. How much could energy
Hope is kindled: Welcome aboard, Rod. This will aid Labor to tackle the gas cartel when it takes power. It must do it first and foremost or as falling house prices drag down the AUD then we’ll see a new gas and electricity price shock smash into the economy. It will be made even worse
The AFR continues its energy jihad against all Australians today: East coast gas buyers have resigned themselves to the prospect of paying around $10 a gigajoule for gas, even with Labor’s gas plan signalling lower prices, said Cooper Energy chief executive David Maxwell. “There no doubt that the mood has changed a lot in the last six
Does anyone recall that glorious period for Andrew Bolt when he pounded away at the “myths” of global warming armed with one chart, the infamous “pause”: Mr Bolt remains a denier today but his chart has disappeared. Why? Because ye auld pause was just that, a pause, with temperatures since rocketing higher and confirming the
The AFR ran some more interesting stuff over weekend, this time from former Credit Suisse analyst Mark Samter: “I think Bill Shorten should be held to account for his comments and to explain to the gas market, and to gas buyers because he has left it, I would argue deliberately opaque so that unions and
Check out this triple somersault with four and half twists from Cities Minister Alan Drudge: Moving migrants into the regions and smaller cities would help fight climate change because congestion in Australia’s largest urban centres will fall, according to Population and Cities Minister Alan Tudge. Mr Tudge appeared on a panel at the University of
The AFR offers a useful debate about gas today, though is draws all the wrong conclusions as usual. Its editorial sets the tone under the title “Solution to energy crisis should fall back on the market”: Rather than heavy-handed resource intervention, the best response is to encourage more domestic supply. That means peeling back the
The scab grab in Aussie energy today is quite simply a bloody disgrace. The AFR leads off the farce: The nation’s energy companies and biggest electricity users have given up on politics and begun backroom talks about a self-regulated package of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, restore energy reliability and improve investor stability. They
More warnings today from industry, via The Australian: The Australian Industry Group, which represents 60,000 manufacturing and industrial businesses, said the expected rise of gas prices on the east coast this summer back to near crisis levels threatens to dent the economy and reflects the government’s failure to sanction sound energy policies. Ai Group chief
I’ll just leave this one here given the end of the world probably rates a mention, Via The Guardian: The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of
There is a point at which recalcitrance becomes retardation and the ACCC has well and truly passed it on gas, via the AFR this morning: Competition czar Rod Sims singles out the two key culprits: overbuilding of LNG export capacity in Gladstone, and restrictions on onshore gas in NSW and Victoria that killed off new
The Australian energy crisis is the circus that just keeps on giving, via The Age: “It’s an inevitability that Australia will import gas, there needs to be at least one gas import terminal in Australia, if not potentially two,” Macquarie Bank analyst Andrew Hodge told Fairfax Media. …However, he said the terminals were unlikely to
The Business Council of Australia is up to its old tricks, at The Guardian: The Business Council of Australia will find itself the target of a negative advertising campaign for declaring that an emissions reduction target of 45% would wreck the Australian economy. With Labor planning to go to the federal election with an emissions
Via the AFR yesterday on Santos: The company is targeting a final go-ahead for the Barossa project by the end of 2019, while an investment decision on the PNG LNG expansion is also due around that time. Mr Gallagher also said Santos is on track to ramp up sales at the GLNG venture in Gladstone to
Via The Australian comes Kerry Schott, ESB chairwoman and NEG architect: “The fact of the matter is the existing coal plants we’ve got — some are low cost and very competitive,” Dr Schott said. “But the problem is that when you go to build a new coal plant and get new coal contracts — unless
Via an increasingly hysterical Ambrose Evans-Pritchard today: If Donald Trump and his close advisers think China’s economy is tottering on the brink and acutely vulnerable to pressure, they are sorely misinformed. …Construction is picking up after a slowdown earlier this year. Industrial profit margins are at a seven-year high of 7 per cent, despite a
Via The Australian comes Queensland Energy Minister Anthony Lynham: “We stand ready to work with a federal Labor government on integrated climate and energy policy that will give investors certainty and drive down electricity prices,” he said. …Dr Lynham claimed there was “nothing but chaos and confusion” emerging from the Morrison government on energy policy
After years of energy war from the Coalition that has included: backing emissions trading; trashing emissions trading; backing renewable energy targets; trashing renewable energy targets; backing direct action; trashing direct action; backing the Chief Scientist; trashing the Chief Scientist; backing a National Energy Guarantee; trashing a National Energy Guarantee. Today we get the new vision from
Via The Australian: In documents submitted to the Victorian government this week, AGL said it wanted the Crib Point import terminal, 65km southeast of Melbourne on the Mornington Peninsula, operating in the first half of 2020. “Victoria, and the other states – South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania – that rely heavily on gas
Perhaps god loves coal after all. Via Courier Mail: ADANI is to tipped to start construction on its job-creating megamine before Christmas by unveiling plans to accelerate the project, which could finally spark pay rises for Queenslanders. The Indian energy giant is preparing to sell down its interest in Abbot Point Port to finance a
Or so says The Australian: Energy producers on Australia’s east coast may escape the threat of government intervention after signalling the extension of a deal to offer uncontracted gas for domestic use before export, and agreeing to make gas available at peak demand periods for the power grid. Following meetings in Canberra yesterday, gas players
Gas market legend Mark Samter is again promoting LNG imports today, at the AFR: …The debate then hit a new low last week with Bill Shorten’s “plan” to introduce a permanent gas export control trigger that can be pulled when prices are too “high”, not just based off a shortfall like the flawed Australian Domestic
Via The Age: Victorian homeowners will be paid nearly $5000 towards the cost of household solar batteries by a re-elected Andrews government in the latest move aimed at making the state Australia’s leader in domestic-scale renewable energy. The latest promise of subsidies for small-scale renewable energy will see households who already have solar panels able
The AFR is upset about the death of the NEG: Labor will take the National Energy Guarantee or something similar to the next federal election as business and industry clamoured for certainty and new data showed power prices had jumped since the NEG was scrapped. It is understandable that markets would bid up electricity futures
As predictable as the sun, via The Australian: Queensland’s three big gas export plants are shipping at their strongest rates in seven months as global LNG prices rise to four-year highs and southern winter demand pushed Sydney and Melbourne gas prices to records last month. The spike may inform talks gas producers and LNG exporters
Via Gottiboff comes Andrew Liveras: Liveris accepts as a given that Australia wants to reduce its emissions and to honour its gas exports contracts. If it doesn’t honour those contracts it will do great long-term harm to the nation. …Liveris plan starts with the requirement that New South Wales needs to exploit its gas and
Catherine Tanna that is, at the AFR: Competition czar Rod Sims has dismantled EnergyAustralia’s reasoning that the introduction of a default retail electricity tariff will mean higher prices for most of its customers, saying that the competitive market means those customers will still be able to get discounts as big as they do now by
From The Australian comes AGL: Australia’s largest power generator, AGL Energy, has warned Victoria faces gas shortages in the early 2020s as supplies from Queensland dry up, with the problem to be made worse should Labor introduce a price trigger to limit export volumes and free up domestic supplies. …“As we move into the 2020s,
Here it is from the ACCC: Importantly, the ACCC isolated gas prices as a very particular influencer of power bills. “Another major factor in wholesale prices has been the significant shortages in competitively priced gas at a time when gas-powered generation would often be the logical source of replacement for lost coal-fired capacity. Gas prices
Random dudes think so, at The Australian: Electricity bills will soar and gas and coal-fired power stations will close if the share of wind and solar generation increases dramatically, engineers have warned after analysing the nation’s energy supply. The analysis casts doubt on Labor’s claim that a 50 per cent renewable energy target — the
