Andrew Bolt: Australia, we’ve got the wrong Chris in charge of energy
Australia’s Energy Minister Chris Bowen seems a reckless and fact-free idiot in comparison to Donald Trump’s pick for Energy Secretary, Chris Wright. Don’t just look at the science. Check their records.
Andrew Bolt
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There are now two energy ministers called Chris. The bad news is that Australia has the wrong one. The disaster.
Australia has Chris Bowen, a shocker who’s just doubled down on his jihad against our reliable coal-fired electricity.
He’s told the United Nations climate conference in Azerbaijan that “Australia is accelerating our transformation to lock in our place as an indispensable part of the global net zero economy”.
Oh, and he’s dead against nuclear power. Bowen this week even rejected an invitation from the United States and Britain to help research and share better ways to get nuclear generators to make electricity.
But meet the other Chris. The rational one who’s made a fortune by getting things right.
Chris Wright founded and ran Liberty Energy, a giant in the business of fracking for gas, and has now been picked by incoming US president Donald Trump to be America’s energy minister, or Energy Secretary.
This Chris sounds nothing like ours, because he uses reason, not emotion, and science, not slogans. He’ll be a nightmare for Bowen, making him seem a reckless and fact-free idiot in comparison.
Let me demonstrate.
Our Chris claims “climate change is an existential threat”.
America’s Chris says that’s rubbish: “There is no climate crisis … There’s not been an increase in hurricanes and floods and droughts, tornadoes … Climate change is a real thing, but we have taken a phenomenon that’s real but slow-moving and modest and called it a crisis.”
Our Chris goes the scare: “Every year more of us are sweltering through increasingly deadly heatwaves.”
America’s Chris points out the medical evidence: “Globally five times more people die every year from the cold than die from the heat.”
He adds that over the past century “we’ve had a 95 per cent decline in the number of people that die from extreme weather while global population quadrupled”, thanks in part to cheap energy from coal.
Our Chris smears people who make this argument as “climate deniers”.
America’s Chris denies denying climate change: “Humans have increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which amplifies the warming and sea level rise since the world came out of the end of the Little Ice Age”, but he adds: “Any negative impact of climate change has been overwhelmed by the benefits of increasing energy consumption”.
Our Chris claims we’re replacing coal and gas as the “world transitions to a net zero global economy”.
America’s Chris says no: “We’re not in the midst of an energy transition.”
He cites the facts: “The world in 2010 consumed about 500 exajoules of energy, and today we consume about 600 … Where did that hundred extra exajoules come from? … Forty per cent cent of the growth in energy globally over the last 12 years came from natural gas. Second fastest growing energy source on the planet: oil, 24 per cent of that growth in energy. Coal, 14 per cent.”
Our Chris claims we just need to “invest” more in wind and solar, claiming “renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy”.
America’s Chris says that’s wrong: wind and solar needs very expensive back-up for “ times when the wind’s not blowing and sun’s not shining”.
“That’s expensive because you’re basically running two electricity generating systems.”
One last contrast. Our Chris says nuclear power here should stay banned, because it’s “risky”.
But America’s Chris says: “I am a huge fan of nuclear power.” It’s zero emissions, gives “reliable power” and “has an incredible safety record”.
America’s Chris also talks about what our Chris ignores: that without coal and gas we can’t make cement, steel, plastics/petrochemicals and fertilisers, “the four pillars of civilisation”.
“We use about 20 per cent of global energy just to make these four materials … That’s about as much energy as the entire global electricity sector.”
You may wonder why I’d trust their Chris over ours.
Don’t just look at the science. Check their records.
Our Chris was a failure as our Immigration Minister, letting in 24,000 boat people. Now as Energy and Climate Change Minister, he’s presided over more disasters: investors have walked away from his green hydrogen plans, his build-out of wind farms is behind and over budget, and his promise to cut your electricity bills by $275 turned out a sick joke.
America’s Chris, though, has made himself and his shareholders a lot of money by fracking for gas, helping to turn the United States last year into the world’s top exporter.
Which Chris would you trust to keep on the lights?
Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Australia, we’ve got the wrong Chris in charge of energy
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