Letter to the Editor: Industrial sabotage?

DEAR News Of The Area,

WHILE the Greens have long been accused of putting ideology before pragmatism in our federal political sphere, the recent behaviour of the Nationals and their Coalition partners in scuttling progress towards ‘Net zero’, illustrates just how far the conservatives are prepared to go to hold up Australia’s energy transition and abandon attempts to tackle climate change.

With several big renewable projects held up or abandoned, one has to ask, at what point does this also amount to ‘industrial sabotage’?

History has shown us that uncertainty is a killer to investment, and arguably the most useful contribution the current Labor government has made to the country is an independent energy authority managing the long overdue energy infrastructure roll out.

While ‘follow the money’ was the cautionary advice from one recent NOTA correspondent, it is also a case of ‘follow the ideology’.

Even a cursory look at this ‘go slow’ agenda will reveal the finger prints of Gina and the fossil fuel lobby along with the broader conservative establishment which has long railed against the science of man-made climate change.

Then there are also the millions in lost tax revenue successive governments have exempted the largest multinationals from, including our largest gas exporter which also just happens to be in the box seat to ‘game’ energy prices.

Remember Scomo’s ‘gas led recovery’ buddies?

While our ageing coal generation falls over, and we struggle to build enough battery capacity the country will continue to depend on gas peaking turbines to smooth electricity generation shortfalls.
Of course we could also ‘follow the technology’.

That would reveal significant incompatibility issues, apart from the high cost and slow build, that current inflexible base load generation such as coal fired and nuclear power generation have with the flexible efficient ‘smart’ grid design we have embarked upon.

And we wonder why electricity prices have gone up, and are likely to stay up for longer.

Regards,
Dave WOOD,
Boambee East.