As a new Climate Change and Energy Minister, Chris Bowen was reluctant to embrace the notion that gas would still have a major role to play in the energy transition.

His apparent aversion to even mentioning the word eventually had to change as the delays and difficulties in shifting out of coal into renewables meant federal Labor had to accept energy industry reality. Gas supply and generation will be crucial in bridging the timing and capacity gap by helping back up renewable wind and solar generation as a “peaking” fuel.