Energy ‘what if’s are no basis for running a country

When it comes to powering our nation, Australia’s problem is not that demand is too high, the problem is that supply is too low. It’s time our nation’s leader have a serious conversation about the issue once and for all, writes Peta Credlin.

The closer I came to the centre of power in Canberra, the more I appreciated how the decisions — or indecisions — of government today can make a crucial difference to the fate of our country, five, ten or twenty years down the track.

Take submarines, for instance. Decisions about the next generation of boat should have been made more than a decade ago. Because the former Labor government neglected this responsibility throughout the Rudd-Gillard terms, we can’t be sure that our strategic deterrent will be adequate towards the end of the next decade.

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And take electricity, the critical ingredient in modern life. How would we be if we couldn’t light and heat our homes, couldn’t run our factories or shops, charge our phones or laptops, or process our food? Yet because of policy decisions by government dating back two decades, electrical power is becoming less affordable and less reliable and Australia is becoming a country where making things is more trouble than it’s worth.

For at least a decade, the main objective of our energy policy has been to reduce emissions, rather than to deliver affordable and reliable power. Picture: AAP/Dan Himbrechts

For at least a decade, the main objective of our energy policy has been to reduce emissions, rather than to deliver affordable and reliable power. Thanks to Labor’s increases to the Renewable Energy Target, there’s more and more subsidised wind and solar power in the system. Because this is very cheap when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining, it’s damaged the economics of coal and gas-fired power that’s available 24/7. But because we can never be sure when the sun will be shining or the wind blowing, we always need enough reliable power in the system to cover peak demand.

In 2015, South Australia lost its last coal-fired power station while one of its gas plants was mothballed. The following year, there was a 24-hour statewide blackout because the wind was so strong that running the turbines was dangerous. Traffic lights didn’t work, patients were sent home from hospital, and even retail trade was almost impossible.

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Now, AGL wants to shut down the Liddell coal-fired power station by 2021, or within 18 months, to take about 15 per cent of NSW power supply out of the system. Higher prices, more blackouts, and more rationing (under the innocuous sounding name of “demand management”) are inevitable. Of course, ‘demand management’ is just another Orwellian phrase that’s infected energy policy. Australia’s problem is not that demand is too high, the problem is that supply is too low.

Australia’s problem is not that demand is too high, the problem is that supply is too low. Picture: AAP/Dan Himbrechts

Yet the NSW government, which would once have been responsible for the delivery of an essential service like power has, as yet, no plan to deal with the looming closure of Liddell. And while the federal government’s so-called “big stick” legislation will give it the power to forcibly divest Liddell to someone who will keep it open, the legislation isn’t yet passed and it’s far from clear that any other player would take Liddell plant on, given the risk of carbon taxes and the like from any future Labor government.

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To his credit, federal energy minister Angus Taylor is clear that his main task is to ensure that Liddell stays open and that the emissions-obsessed Victorian Labor government doesn’t contrive to further damage the economics of the remaining La Trobe Valley coal-fired power stations. Perhaps it’s unfair to expect this since he’s been in the job less than a year, but it’s still hard to see how this will be achieved. And the new or refurbished coal-fired power stations and the new gas-fired power stations, that our country will eventually need, remain almost impossible to build because of the climate cult’s set against fossil fuels.

Someone has got to lead a serious conversation with the Australian people about the reality of renewable energy.

It’s simply impossible to run a modern economy on wind and solar power because batteries are expensive and not universally practical.

Assertions that the technology will come good might comfort schoolkids who’ve been brainwashed about the dangers of climate change, but they’re no basis for running a country.

Originally published as Energy ‘what if’s are no basis for running a country