I observe
the Australian effort
to make their electricity
much more expensive,
from here in the US
… where I suspect,
we will be next,
after Trump.
I can’t figure out
the Australian
“energy logic”.
Australia has a lot of coal.
Australia exports a lot of coal.
That coal gets burned
in other nations,
adding CO2
to the atmosphere.
What difference
would it make
to the atmospheric
CO2 level.
if more Australian coal
was burned by
Australian power plants,
rather than being burned
in power plants located
in other nations ?
(other than providing
cheaper electricity
for Australians)
The Australian energy policy
appears to be the equivalent of
“shooting yourself in the foot”
to use an old American expression.
The high cost
of electricity
in Australia is like
a "Carbon Tax"
by another name.
Electricity price hikes
cover the cost
of large subsidies
paid to attract
investment
in "renewables".
The future of
these “investments”
will be a blight
on the landscape
if the subsidies dry up,
and they are abandoned.
The electricity retailer
is forced to pay cash
for certificates
(STC, LGCs)
from windmill
and solar vendors
at a ‘market price’.
The government
supervises this,
but the money
never goes to them,
so it is not a tax.
This energy policy
was introduced by
the 2000 Liberal
Howard government,
as a way of funding
windmills and solar,
by a back door.
As senior physicist
Tom Quirk calculated:
the Renewable Energy
(Electricity) Act 2000
(the RET)
is a hidden carbon tax
of $200 a tonne on coal
and $400 a tonne on gas.
( Tom Quirk: University of Oxford
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD),
Elementary Particle Physics
1963 – 1967 )
Currently, customers
are paying billions a year
in ‘subsidies’ for windmills
and solar panels.
Australia is
forcing customers
to pay double
for their electricity,
because their
electric companies
are forced to fund
third parties
to build windmills, and
buy and install
solar panels.
Repeal the RET,
and Australian
electricity prices
would be cut in half.
Pushing up electricity prices
in Australia will do little or
nothing to stop the rise in
greenhouse gas (GHG) levels,
the supposed aim of policy.
The voluntary
Paris Climate Agreement
specifically excluded
developing nations
from an immediate obligation
to reduce their emissions,
and there was no obligation
to even estimate
when their GHG emissions
would peak.
Developing nations
provide about
two-thirds of global
GHG emissions,
and accounted for
almost all of
the global GROWTH
in GHG emissions
since 1990,
so any actions by
Australia,
with under 2%
of global
GHG emissions, are a
'drop in the bucket'.
Judith Sloan, in
The Weekend Australian,
on August 12 2017,
in a piece headlined:
“Tony Abbott’s RET,
emissions policies
made energy policy
a farce”,
wrote:
“Tony Abbott
may have seen the light
on energy policy
since ceasing to be
prime minister.
But when he had the top job,
he made two fatal mistakes.
The first was
to agree to
the renewable
energy target
being renegotiated,
rather than
ditched or paused.
The second
was to agree to
the emissions
reduction targets
of 26% to 28%
of 2005 levels,
by 2030
as part of
our commitment
to the Paris
Climate agreement.
What was he thinking?
He may claim
he acted
on the basis
of dodgy advice
— and there was
an overabundance of it
at the time (and still is)
— but he was warned
on both matters.”
Australia needs
a real alternative
to their three major
socialist parties !
Note:
The trend in wholesale
electricity prices
in Victoria:
2015 / 16 $46 / MWhr
2016 / 17 $67
2017 / 18 $92
since July 2018, $86
The trend in wholesale
natural gas prices
in Victoria:
3Q 2015 $4.68 / GJ
3Q 2016 $8.83
3Q 2017 $8.57
3Q 2018 $9.43
Forecasts are for over $10 soon,
due to decreasing supply,
and increasing demand.