Peta Credlin: Bowen has bad wind problem as offshore power farms fall over

While terrible news for Chris Bowen and Victorian Labor, the folding of a ‘green’ offshore wind project is a blessing in disguise for BlueScope Steel, writes Peta Credlin.

There’s been more bad news for Labor’s so-called “green transition” with the announcement that one of the last remaining players to build massive offshore wind farms off the Illawarra and Gippsland coasts has withdrawn, saying now that offshore wind is “no longer commercially viable in the short and medium term”.

BlueFloat Energy was the player, and not only have bids been withdrawn but the company has folded.

While it is terrible news for Chris Bowen, it’s especially bad for Victorian Labor, which had planned for offshore wind to replace much of the La Trobe Valley’s coal-fired power – but a blessing in disguise for BlueScope Steel, whose energy costs would have increased massively from $200 million a year if it had been forced to rely on offshore wind to generate “green hydrogen” in order to make “green steel”.

BlueFloat Energy withdrawing its offshore wind project is terrible news for Chris Bowen.

Offshore wind power is at least three times the price of onshore wind and if gas-firmed onshore wind really is cost-competitive with coal, why are energy intensive businesses all round Australia (like our smelters) now demanding subsidies to survive as coal power phases down?

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that much of the hype about “cheap” renewables is being driven by the spivvy rent-seeking, often foreign, businesses that tend to be attracted to industries with government subsidies.

And for what environmental gain are we making ourselves energy vulnerable and economically poor?

Since 2005, to combat climate change, Australia has reduced emissions by 29 per cent, from 610 to 433 million tonnes with real electricity prices doubling in the process. Meanwhile, in the same period, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, China, has more than doubled its emissions from 6.3 billion to 13 billion tonnes.

That’s right, their increase is over 30 times our decrease – rendering our climate efforts totally futile.

THUMBS UP

Vale John Stone – former head of Treasury and a Nationals senator, a big thinker and a great Australian.

THUMBS DOWN

Childcare – We have a crisis in childcare centres in this country with more sex abuse charges laid against workers last week. And yet not one law has changed to protect our kids. Just talk and reviews.

Originally published as Peta Credlin: Bowen has bad wind problem as offshore power farms fall over