Essay by Eric Worrall
Expropriated Fossil Fuel generator owners have been told to “prioritise customers over profits”.
Climate change: Australia signs new carbon emissions target
By Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, SydneyAustralian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced more ambitious climate targets for his country.
He has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by 2030, up from the previous conservative government’s target of between 26% and 28%.
Australia is one of the world’s highest per capita carbon emitters.
The target brings the country more in line with other developed economies’ Paris climate accord commitments.
Canada is aiming for a reduction of 40% by 2030 from 2005 levels, while the United States has a target of up to 52%.
“When I’ve spoken with international leaders in the last few weeks, they have all welcomed Australia’s changed position,” Mr Albanese, who assumed office last month, said after notifying the United Nations.
…
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61822046
Aussie Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also demanded fossil fuel generator companies put customers ahead of profits.
Anthony Albanese tells energy companies it has responsibility to its customers as Sydney hospitals told to conserve power
The Prime Minister has issued a warning amid the energy crunch being felt along the east coast with households and even hospitals told to conserve power after the market operator was forced to suspend the electricity market across Australia for the first time since its creation.
David Wu Digital Reporter
June 16, 2022 – 7:15AMPrime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned power companies to prioritise its customers over profits with the energy crisis affecting households through to hospitals.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) was forced to suspend the spot market for the first time since its creation in 1998 – which includes NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT – on Wednesday afternoon.
It said it was “impossible to operate” due to the shortfall in supply being blamed on a number of reasons including generators being offline, an upward in usage due to winter and international pressures such as the Ukraine war.
AEMO added the unprecedented move is the “best way” to ensure a reliable supply of power to Australian homes and businesses.
…
Read more: https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/anthony-albanese-tells-energy-companies-it-has-responsibility-to-its-customers-as-sydney-hospitals-told-to-conserve-power/news-story/2e4df0f09d6d5c080bd972fde35e2495
Lets not forget since yesterday Australia’s Prime Minister Albanese has been expropriating power at a price generator owners claim is below the cost of production, in my opinion stealing from those very same companies he now demands should exercise their social conscience.
I’m struggling to think of the right word or phrase to describe, to truly capture the incoherence of this moment. Perhaps WUWT readers can help?
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You steal from me what you have already taken and then ask me to produce less, but not too much and ask me why I can’t come thru with more for you without feeling used and then asked to respect what you are doing as you bankrupt my industry.. ALBO say it isn’t so. Has the whole world gone kookoo. This green train is about to come off the tracks I just hope not many people get hurt along the way
Ineffable neomort
ineluctably rapacious enviromarxist,
Ploy from Alinsky playbook siphons Aussie future.
perfidious Alba screws Aussies for Komsomol points.
…something along those lines- but stronger
to Aussie voters: you voted for an ideologue and got a naked splenetic totalitarian! Enjoy!
The outlooks looks grim:
“The crisis in the energy market has strengthened the case for Australia to reduce its reliance on gas and coal in favour of renewables, the nation’s peak energy regulator has declared in a warning …” (Brisbane Times).
“Reality check for energy
Former Energy Security Board chair Kerry Schott says the last 10 days is the wake-up call to the fact coal-fired generators are simply not reliable“ (The Australian).
You have to admire the sheer chutzpah.
They have an idea, they just don’t have a plan.
“Are you crazy or just plain stupid?”
(from Forrest Gump)
One word LULUCF.
Australia will be able to BS it’s way to emissions reduction by fudging LULUCF numbers.
Someones going make a lot of money planting trees.
THere is a lot of tube stock being planted in Melbournes outer east.
In this high risk bushfire area, how will the emissions maths work when they burn?
So far, it’s just words from Anthony Albanese, while AEMO tries to fix the situation. It’s easy to believe the words and think that Australia is headed for oblivion – that is after all where the words inevitably lead. However, actions speak louder than words, and I think it would be prudent to see how the actions turn out.
The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) is now a pure propaganda outlet, and their programs last night with panel discussion of the energy crisis were as pukeworthy as anything I have ever seen on the ABC, with not one selected ‘expert’ able to get even close to explaining the real issues. But the ABC does not run the show, and I detect a change of mood in people outside the green city. They want their energy fixed, and they don’t care about the politics. If Anthony Albanese doesn’t pick up on that then he is toast. And I think (and hope) that he will pick up on it. If I’m right, then watch the words and the actions separate into two separate tracks: an increasing commitment to unattainable CO2 emission targets beyond the end of the government’s term in office, and a resurgence in coal and gas electricity generation. Europe is doing that, why not Australia too.
It won’t be easy, because too much coal generation has bedn destroyed and the rest has not been maintained properly (why would they), but Australia has only gone to the brink not quite over the edge yet.
For those who still don’t understand the energy situation, let me repeat what I said recently: In the past, major failures in Australian electricity supply have been caused by natural events such as bushfires, cyclones and storms (find ‘Australia’ in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_power_outages). The present crisis came about with no natural event and it comes from within the system itself. The main things that have changed within the system are the removal of reliable coal stations and the introduction of a lot of unreliable renewables. You CANNOT replace reliable power with unreliable power and still have reliable power. That is today’s problem in a nutshell.
Mike, you hold out some hope for us Aussies who have not been infected with the AGW-panic mind virus turbo-charged by the Green religion, and the schrill left-wing/AGW alarmist narrative in the media (ABC and the rest versus Sky where sanity breaks through eg Outsiders). However, the Labour Government of Albanese (elected with the lowest primary vote ever) are beholden to the Greens in the Senate with Aussies electing 12 Greens! Crazy, crazy… the Green’s policies would be an abominable disaster for this fair country. BUT we elected them; loop back to mind virus/religion/media bias.
The other possibility is enough Aussies use their commonsense to note the Before vs After natural experiment and its outcome variables of power prices and reliability, that is “Before” intervention (i.e. Impact factor) where the grid was supplied by fossil fuel generated power with some hydro from the Snowy Mountain Scheme and Tasmania and “After” of the rush to renewables/defund new & close existing coal-fired power stations. If we want to do the whole BACI design we have China as the Control (i.e to control for non-intervention confounders). If we combine price and reliability by adding the cost of blackouts to industry/residential etc to the price per MgWH as the outcome variable then we have a full BACI design which can be replicated eg India, California etc. I am a bit into BACI designs at the moment (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360559335_A_comment_on_'Can_virtual_fences_reduce_wombat_road_mortalities_Are_severely_under-_powered_studies_worth_the_effort)
“ If Anthony Albanese doesn’t pick up on that then he is toast. And I think (and hope) that he will pick up on it.”
Nah. The green politicians of today are like the old stubborn farm mule needing a 2×4 between the eyes to get his attention. Something like old folks dying from lack of heat/air-conditioning, hospital patients dying when the grid is offline and the backup generator dies (no diesel fuel to be had?), medical patients at home dying when the grid goes down (home dialysis, breathing machines, etc), food/medicine shortages due to grid failures affecting residential and commercial refrigeration, etc.
Think that some still like it. loudly… 🙂
Somehow… hopefully outside the clause of jealousy… fingers crossed.
🙂
‘Alice Cooper – Poison’
Nice, and strong, mates. 🙂
cheers cheers
I don’t necessarily blame the politicians for these messes – I blame the voters. How exactly did the Aussie (who I thought were independent thinkers) elect an idiot such as this or his party? Canada is the same with Trudope
Australia put Scott Morrison into government three years ago to do things which he then did not do. So this time, they voted him out. The real power of democracy is not to put in a government they want, it is the power to remove a government they don’t want any more. Anthony Albanese is simply the current beneficiary of the democratic system. There is another vote in three years time.
Who gave the Aussie PM the dictatorial power to tell people what to do?
Power companies can and do sell their power to whom they like. Grid stability means their is a regulatory body to handle the voluntary spot market price and quantity.
“Who gave the Aussie PM the dictatorial power to tell people what to do?” Aussies not insisting on Constitutional protections for individual rights.
As Ayn Rand liked to emphasize, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
“I’m struggling to think of the right word or phrase to describe, to truly capture the incoherence of this moment. Perhaps WUWT readers can help?”
The best way for you to react, Eric, is to hold your head and laugh. Then go out and do your gardening.
The right word:- NUTS
(No Use Thinking Straight, No-one Understands The Situation, just kNuckle Under To Stupidity)
We can put more nails in the coffin faster than you .
So there .
“Canada is aiming for a reduction of 40% by 2030 from 2005 levels, while the United States has a target of up to 52%.”
Yeah, like anybody actually believes that’s gonna happen.
The present Prime minister appears to have overlooked the small fact that there before 2030 there will be a General Election in 2025 and another in 2038. The damage him and his government will cause will give them a very small chance of winning either of these.
Remember that the PM and many of his Cabinet Ministers have no private sector business experience, but arguably worse than that, they served in the Rudd, Gillard and back to Rudd Labor Federal governments 2007 to 2013.
Often referred to as chaotic, dysfunctional and incompetent governments.
The actual situation is that the energy providers will be paid by the AEMO about 90% of an agreed price at a later date. In the end the taxpayers still pay.
Much is being said just now about the powers and functions of AEMO, the Australian Energy Market Operator, the body said to have forced electricity generators to sell below cost.
AEMO was set up by a body named COAG, Conference of Australian Governments, a mix of Federal, State and Local Governments. Soon after its election on 21st of last month, the new federal Government on 2nd June changed COAG to NFRC, National Federation Reform Council.
COAG becomes National Cabinet | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (pmc.gov.au)
Nowhere in the Australian Constitution can I find an authorisation for a body like NFRC to subsume the usual business of governments Federal, State and Local.
Those with skills in Constitutional law should examine if the old COAG was established legitimately and whether its actions should be overturned. (COAG seems to take away much of the ability of elected politicians in opposition parties to be heard. This seems contrary to the spirit of the Constitution).
Fundamentally, it is the new NFRC that will be leading the way for the demolition of the fossil fuel industry. Energy companies, particularly explorer/producer companies for coal, oil and gas are the target, yet they do not appear to be vocal.
Geoff S
“I’m struggling to think of the right word or phrase to describe, to truly capture the incoherence of this moment. Perhaps WUWT readers can help?”
The word is chutzpah. The definition of the word is the audacity required for an man who murderers his parents in cold blood to ask for mercy because he is an orphan.
It said it was “impossible to operate” due to the shortfall in supply being blamed on a number of reasons including generators being offline, an upward in usage due to winter and international pressures such as the Ukraine war.
The Ukraine War is affecting power supply in Australia? Cause… Australian power runs off Russian fertilizer? A global shortage of Ukrainian Thots?
Yup. That makes sense.
NSW Minister Green apparently believes in the same fairies at the bottom of the garden that the Greens consult.
AEMO “Fuel Mix” for South Australia at 0830, June 17, 2022.
Gas 87%, Solar and Wind 3%, the balance being imported from Victoria.
“Fuel Mix”, SA, at 1410, June 17 2022
Gas 77%, Liquid Fuel 7%, Solar 13%, Wind 2%, and Exporting 280 MW to Victoria.
https://aemo.com.au/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-market-nem/data-nem/data-dashboard-nem#nem-dispatch-overview
(“Weather-dependent” energy. Bah Humbug.)
Sméagol, He is also called Gollum, a name known to Frodo.
Sméagol
Killed his cousin Déagol, to steal the ring Déagol found, which Sméagol claimed as his birthday present.
Lurked in very dark places.
Killed and ate raw other sentients.
Is a dual personality.
One of Sméagol’s personalities is truly psychotic while the other personality was ingratiating and showing some desire for peer relationships.
It ain’t gonna be easy
Livin’ under Albanese.
Australian voters bought the ticket.
Now they get to take the ride…
Australia: The stupid country. I have had no blackouts yet but I don’t use much power anyway, my most expensive power bill in the last 2 and a bit years was ~AU$190 for the quarter. I still tell friends of mine when they complain about their AU$800+ power bills is to turn stuff off at the wall as it will only get worse.
I am in. a single person household with visitors maybe a weekend a month and my last electricity account was $265.00 for the quarter
I am utterly astounded Albo won the federal election. This guy is a complete moron.
Preferential voting system, Labor received fewer primary votes than the previous government at the last election, and therefore gained just enough seats to form a new government.
During the election campaign and faced with daily media questions he should have been able to answer, but couldn’t, he only appeared with colleagues who could answer the questions. And now as PM he still refers questions to his Cabinet Ministers after giving a simplistic personal response.