Essay by Eric Worrall
“No one asked any of us”: A federal plan for states to share the carbon offset cost of new gas field development has not been well received.
Tensions emerge between state and federal governments over Australia’s energy grid roadmap
Exclusive: disquiet points to jockeying among jurisdictions and impatience over the rollout of renewables
Peter Hannam Sun 23 Jul 2023 06.00 AEST
Cracks in the unity of the nation’s energy ministers have emerged amid disquiet over a review of power grid plans and an effort by the federal government to force carbon offsets from big new gas fields on to the states.
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“Any review has to align with the ambitions of each jurisdiction,” one official said. “We’re not there for the commonwealth to tell us what to do.”
At the meeting, Bowen also surprised state and territory counterparts with a plan for them to pay for the carbon offsets that will be required for the proposed Beetaloo and other new gas fields in the Northern Territory. The commonwealth would underwrite the pipeline to bring the gas south.
States, however, pushed back, with Western Australia and Queensland particularly opposed to the precedent of assigning offsets for the so-called scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions that would result, another official said.
“No one asked any of us” about the offsets plan, the first official said, adding the market for carbon credits would struggle to cope with existing demand without lumping in major new emissions sources such as Beetaloo. “It’s not our problem.”
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The Clean Energy Council industry group said investors committed to only 400MW of new capacity in the first half of 2023. Some 5 gigawatts – more than 10 times that amount – was needed yearly if emissions reduction goals for the power sector were to be met by 2030, the council said.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/23/integrated-system-plan-energy-grid-roadmap-state-federal-tension
This is quite a turnaround for Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen. Bowen is one of the most climate enthusiast federal government ministers in Australia’s history.
Who could have predicted Bowen would become a fossil fuel promoter? Perhaps energy grid reality is catching up with Bowen’s green energy fantasies.
The truth is Australia’s electricity grid is in desperate trouble. Renewable investment has failed to materialise at anything like the scale the government hoped. According to the article above, only 400MW of investment appeared in the first half of 2023, rather than the 5GW the federal Net Zero target requires.
Read more: Aussie Climate Minister Rejects Claims the Grid will Fail when the Generators are Decommissioned
The Victorian State Government is so worried about the lack of investment in green energy, they pumped in some taxpayer cash, only to see private investors back off even harder, over concerns public money would crowd out opportunities for private investors.
Adding to the pressure for action, a looming El Nino promises an exceptionally hot Southern Hemisphere Summer for Australia.
If the Aussie grid suffers a hard fail during a heatwave, questions will be asked, questions a green obsessed federal government which has driven accelerated coal plant closures with threats of carbon pricing will be hard pressed to answer.
For more information on the impossibilities and inconsistencies of the global Net Zero push click here.
The government will not be hard pressed to answer… they will lie like they usually do, say maybe something like to blame fossil fuels for the supply chain problems and that we need to double down on the socialism, I mean renewables because their irreligious cult says that renewables are cheaper, inspite of the costs going ever up.
People stop listening after a few blackouts. Hence IMO the desperate scramble for a solution.
Eric, its difficult for those that engineered the problem to design solutions.
My guess they’re still wondering why private companies didn’t respond to the government targets they set.
I’m with PCman999, if the grid fails due to a heat wave, it won’t fail so spectacularly that they can’t spin it to their favor. They will shed load as much as it takes.
They will welcome the opportunity to hype the “unprecedented”, “worse, far worse than anyone could have predicted”, “extreme searing, “hottest in recorded history“ heat.
Every arsonist’s fire will be trumpeted to the ends of the earth. Video of the smoking charred hulk of every burnt out home that is lost because firebreaks may not be cut will be played on a loop.
Think the residents of Oz are too smart to be fooled like that? There’s evidence to the contrary.
Exhibit A: Albo
Exhibit B: Bowen
“smoking charred hulk of every burnt out home”
and dead Kuala bears!
And, like Texas Feb 2021, their spin doctors (like Griff and Mr Stokes) will be quick to blame ANY issues on FF dependence and deflect the issues imposed by ruinables
Griff seems to have fallen off the edge of the World. He hasn’t posted in months.
Sometimes I wonder if thefinalnail isn’t Griff, the nonsense seems so familiar.
One fine day when Anthony imposed registration to post, griff bid us farewell. I don’t believe he ever commented again yclept griff (h/t Willis)
Of course it seems likely that he had and has his sockpuppets. Rusty the Final Nail is a solid candidate. If they are not one and the same, they are kindred spirits.
Listening to that guy for 30 sec’s should tell you all you need to know.
It told me how tired I was listening to fanatics who don’t listen to anyone and don’t care about anyone other than themselves. I think climate alarmism may one day be discovered as a consequence of not accepting the task of growing up: they’re like kids who want to be comfortable and who want everyone else to make life work so they have no anxiety.
Like this but without the maths either side
https://cafehayek.com/2014/03/then-a-miracle-occurs.html
Anybody that white should never wear a pink tie.
Natural gas, oil, bitumen and coal are stored mass and energy provided to us from the sun and recycled carbon dioxide.
The problem is that idiots like the one wearing the pink tie are fundamentally dishonest.
The ‘tell’ here is the fed gov is actually anxious to have this gas available to make the grid work. They need to hide this behind a screen of needing to look like they are tough on gas and they are already short of cash and want the states to pay for offsetting the ‘Carbon’.
What does the idiot mean by ‘storage’ and what investment in what has he in mind?
Its obvious: You can store electricity in the dams, just like you do water.
Or maybe in cardboard boxes. Think he would go for that?
Thanks for the best laugh I’ve had all week. 😁
Back to the “the magic happens here” syndrome. Does he not think that every electrical engineer (myself) have thought about this for many years, because the solution would make the inventor as rich as Bill Gates x 100! Electricity is very tricky stuff, very useful but is entirely a dynamic phenomenon. There is static electricity but it is not something that is quite what is required, the energy density is very low indeed. I do have one idea that is interesting but far too expensive, that is to store electricity in superconducting electromagnets! They can hold significant levels of power, and one a few miles cube would be almost useful.However the cost would be immense, as would the cooling cost!
The superconducting magnet idea might actually work. If you surrounded a space with crazy amounts of insulation you might be able to minimise cooling – insulation requirement increases with surface area, but energy storage capacity increases with volume.
Having said that cooling failure would be as scary as dielectric failure in a super capacitor energy bank. If you say had a 1GW day facility, and temperatures rose above superconducting, the resulting explosion would rival the bomb which destroyed Hiroshima.
We’d be better off diverting renewable energy to pumpjacks when we can but otherwise run them continuously as long as it is economical to do so.
pumpjack? hmmmm- sounds kinda dirty 🙂
Cooling cost? So for that- you’d need EVEN MORE wind and solar- and for that- you’d need even MORE storage- and for that…..
if you spin that a bit more Bowen would bite
and wed all be even more broke
Don’t try and work it out mate, you’ll just give yourself a nose bleed.
?Investment? No one, especially renewable zealots, wants to talk about the actual cost required to replace thermal sources. The are EASY to calculate for any grid: Peak Demand / Current Lowest Renewables output = Required added ?Investment?) + (Current grid investment / Any new grid requ9red to support renewables growth = Required added ?Investment?)
For Texas the 1st calculation is simple: (~70MW / ~2MW (ERCOT planned renewables output) = 35 times 2021 ?Investment?) These numbers are for the Winter Storm Uri period where the Renewables Zealots blamed the grid outages on thermal sources, and not on the actual .7MW to .8MW lows seen during that storm.
Yes, I know that the actual outputs make the numbers 3+ times higher than 35, but why quibble about these enormous ?investment? numbers? A portion of them are going to happen before the grid fails even more spectacularly than killing 200-250+ Texans. That’s another example of stranded investments, and irrational, illogical behaviour.
/sarc Why do the renewables zealots not want to talk about these ?Investment? numbers?/sarc
Its interesting to learn that the Australian Climate Minister is responsible for designing and operating the electric power system. Everything is fine and good until the voters run out of power. It sounds like some Aussie politicians are getting worried.
It would appear, we now have the lame brained and the easily led elevated to the political decision making role in our Western democracies.
While that is the case, think Biden, Trudeau, Macron, Sunak, Scholtz, and too many underlings of those numpties to mention, we will never be able to climb out of the self imposed hole Western nations have dug for themselves.
The now well established deindustrialisation movement, whether we call them Wokists or Climate Alarmists, or plain old fashioned anarchists, have captured the levers of power.
While we allow them to wreck our present and destroy our future, the man made crises invented to subdue society’s right to freedom grow ever more debilitating/draconian.
The de-banking of Nigel Farage here in the UK by Coutts, a subsidiary of NatWest shows how determined the Woke establishment are, at blocking out any and all who oppose them.
We allow the BBC to fan the flames of climate crisis hype. They know we have no real opportunity or mechanism to challenge their lies. They (BBC) even managed to add to the de-banking Farage fiasco, without apologising for their false coverage. They remain unapologetic even after the banks involved had accepted their folly and apologised for their woke inspired actions.
It is the ability of the lying media class to present any story no matter how errant that must be changed.
The only thing worse than a government controlled media, is a media controlled government.
Sadly we are living and suffering under the latter option.
I assume the Western equivalent of piano wire and lamp posts will be required to climb out of our mess.
Simon Jack was sat next to Alison Rose at dinner….
You are not suggesting BBCs Jack the lad, having dinner with Rose the CEO of NatWest the night before the BBC reported (incorrectly) Farage was de-banked due to lack of funds was insider knowledge are you Strat?
It’s the embarrassment of the week – for them.
He swallowed it hook, line, sinker – and copy of the Angling Times.
The U.S. Second Amendment was devised for what follows, if it has to get to that.
Personally, I have zero interest in weapons of any sort. I also have no trouble with people who like weapons of any sort. But in case I change my mind- I like the 2nd amendment.
Weapons are nothing more than a tool. Like for any tool, you choose your weapon for the job at hand. Its also handy to have a couple of big dogs and a reliable little yapper around the house; back them up with a shotgun. For rioters and brownshirt thugs a semiautomatic 5.56mm or 7.62mm rifle is preferred. For normal, every-day violent criminals and insane people a concealed semiautomatic 9mm is handy.
The good news is that Farage is continuing to pursue his complaint with the data watchdog over the leak of personal data. Coutts could be fined up to £17m, I certainly hope so.
Maybe more fear is required?
“”Why aren’t we more scared of the climate crisis? It’s complicated
You think the scarier it is, the more we should talk about it. In fact, it’s often the reverse. It’s too scary to talk about.””
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/22/climate-crisis-fear-psychology
“Why aren’t we more scared of the climate crisis?”
I suspect that most rational people are coming to the realisation that it is all just hype and fearmongering, and there really isn’t any climate crisis at all.
Just a political idiocy crisis.
Big Bad Wolf…. Wicked Witches etc etc…
Made up stories to scare little children.
Climate Change is no different.
“Made up stories to scare little children” AND VOTERS.
They could never get their fascist policies approved otherwise.
“But one must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy. Obviously, the owners of coal and oil will not be enthusiastic about this. One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore, …”
psychologists- they know zero about anything
I switched majors in college- several times- due to my interest in most things- at one point I switched to psych – took 7 courses- then concluded that they know nothing about anything. Enough with the intellectual airy stuff so I wanted to get into something real – switched into forestry, then spent 50 years with my feet on the ground, hopefully grounding me from such ignorant and unreal thinking. Wore out dozens of pairs of boots.
Good luck persuading 100% renewable Tassie to accept the cost of carbon offsets for Natural gas it doesn’t need…
Bowen is the Australian equivalent of John Kerry
The ignorance runs from the very tips of his toes to the hair on his head.
Encompassing every figment of his being.
He also has a similar insufferably stupid “I-know-it-all” arrogance to go with it…
While being basically clueless about everything.
He sounds like a young Joe Bribem.
With all lack of respect to one J Kerry, that is an unfair comparison.
Bowen is in government, hence controls things he has no idea about and Kerry is just a hanger on, and has no idea and even things his visit to China was success.
Bowen has an IQ about 2, Kerry bout 4
Bowen is destroying the energy systems in this country with his idiot may flip flop Albo, who pretends he is a PM. Kerry has tried but has no idea how.
OK similar but Bowes is a sub set of Kerry..
Bowen set a target for renewables but has bot even managed to reach 25% of that yet.
Bowen is a dud arrogant fool, (ok unfair to fools).
I would have thought that with a population of some 13 time Australia’s…
… the US could have found a politician at least as dumb, stupid and gormless as Bowen.
Maybe as your next Democrat leader ?
I’m sure there are plenty of Nigerian and “Green” entrepreneurs who would be more than willing to take funding for carbon offsets.
Many times over for the same imaginary offset…
You know, like happens already.
The electrity generated by wind and solar can be stored in pump storage systems as pointed out by the Austrain politician. Everbody is bound to have a spare hand basin
Here in Woke-achusetts, the enviro climate whack jobs hate pumped storage.
The lefties are running out of everybody else’s money.
BlackOut Bowen has sent me on a hunt for at least 2 decent petrol/diesel generators and a housing for them.
The cost to have them linked to my house is minor to the end result and damage he will cause.
Also need to look at fuel storage before he cuts that off.
He is one of the biggest fools in the current government and that is a tall order considering the others there.
Well done, Queensland and Western Australia! Don’t be pushed into helping to support financially the federal dreams based on the myth of carbon dioxide being the cause of global warming! Scientists who are not federal employees know that such cause is almost entirely natural – they dare to pronounce this only because they do not risk unemployment by stating the truth!
“…a looming el Niño…”
A lot of hope and prayer by alarmists after a triple la Niña and almost 9yrs of cooling, rather. There still isn’t much
warm water in the system and the system itself has changed dramatically since just prior to the 2015 el Niño. Large volumes of cold water are welling up off California and southern Chile and slanting equatorward diluting the ENSO region and limiting its warming.
I pointed this out and the sudden precipitous drop from the El Niño peak at the time because of the lack of warm water volumes to sustain it. I didn’t see any mention of this from the experts and even now no mention of the changed character of ENSO. Possibly willful blindness.
They are praying desperately for a strong El Nino.
It is the only way they can get any warming.
It is as if they KNOW warming will not come from enhanced atmospheric CO2.
Anyone mentioning El Nino as a result of atmospheric warming should be ridiculed as a moron.
The El Nino isn’t looking too strong, nor too long term. This chart, from the Australian BOM site provides some current data.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/#tabs=Pacific-Ocean&pacific=SOI
western vic my area is now 10mm over last yrs rainfall already, and last yr was hefty were around 310mm so far jan to today, el nino sure not showing here, lots of crops in water all over the place, not real deep but if it doesnt ease off soon theyll lose a bit
Yep the NEM grid fuel mix is running at 76% fossil fuels at night again-
AEMO | NEM data dashboard
That leaves wind at 11% and we’ll assume the 13% Snowy Hydro was pumped up with solar and wind in daylight hours. Better get cracking with the vision splendid and your timeline promises Minister.
Investors are not stupid. Curtailment payments will not survive continuing installation of multiple capacities. At some point W&S will be required to up their capacity factors (think backup) rather than continually installing more and more low capacity generators and relying on curtailment payments for profit.
“the rain doesn’t always fall either, but we manage to store the water – we can store the renewable energy if we have the investment”
What an idiot!
We can only wonder if he has his own investments in the “renewable energy” industrial complex. Somebody should ask him.
Giving the government more money never solved a damn thing. It is past time for the government to get it’s stinking hands out of our pockets.
chris bowen has the charm and appeal of a full nappy(ie hes full of it)
and the IQ to match