Terry McCrann: Wind plus electricity equals dollars
IN the armed forces a commander can be ruled ‘unfit for command on the grounds of insanity’ — the most famous movie representation was Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny, writes Terry McCrann.
Terry McCrann
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IN the armed forces a commander can be ruled ‘unfit for command on the grounds of insanity’ — the most famous movie representation was Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny.
We clearly need something similar for removing political leaders, and the first two to go would-be South Australia’s premier Jay Weather-dill and Victoria’s premier Daniel ‘the bird-killer’ Andrews.
They are of course most decidedly not on their ‘Pat Malone’: there’s a conga line of other political leaders, mostly Labor but also from the Coalition, and of course every Green, snaking out behind them.
But it is Weather-dill and ‘bird-killer’ Andrews who have displayed the most unambiguous signs of insanity under the definition attributed to the world’s greatest scientist Albert Einstein: “of doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
Weather-dill has committed SA to get most of its electricity from wind turbines. Time and again we see what happens ‘when the wind don’t blow.’ Err, well, then ‘the power don’t flow.’
Mostly, it hasn’t been that obvious to the average South Australian — apart from continually spiralling electricity prices — because of the long extension cord SA has got plugged into Victoria’s steady and reliable coal-fired power stations in the Latrobe Valley.
But late last year the national energy market operator (AEMO) pulled the plug; because it had to — SA was demanding just too much of the reliable coal-fired power (ironically, because the wind was blowing too hard, and the SA turbines shut themselves off just as they would if it wasn’t blowing at all!).
On Tuesday, Weather-dill was complaining that the national market had “let SA down” — because other states wouldn’t keep enough extra real power generation, to make up for when the ‘wind don’t blow’ in SA, or hadn’t built enough ‘extension cords’ just for SA.
So SA is now going to — purportedly — look after itself, by putting in some big batteries and building a ‘gas peaker’ power plant.
That’s going to cost South Australians upwards of half-a-billion dollars. And it will still cover only some of the shortfall, in the electricity that South Australians demand to keep the lights and fridges on and businesses require to, well, stay in business, when the ‘wind don’t blow.’
SA will still be wanting to use the ‘long extension cord.’ Except once the Hazlewood plant in the Latrobe Valley closes at the end of this month — and takes out 20 per cent of Victoria’s generation capacity in one insane hit — there ain’t going to be any spare power at the end of that cord.
Indeed, on a very hot, or very cold day, Victoria will be wanting to use its long extension cord, into NSW and on to its steady and reliable coal-fired power stations. Or just maybe NSW will be wanting to do the same in the opposite direction!
So first off, after spending more than half-a-billion taxpayer dollars, AND sending SA electricity prices even higher, South Australians still won’t have any guarantee that their lights, fridges, computers and machines won’t be powered off.
But secondly, all they get for that half-a-billion dollars is 25-30 per cent of their normal electricity needs, and only for 3-4 hours. After that the batteries go flat and the ‘gas peaker’ has to be turned off.
Ah, but by then the wind will be ‘blowing again’.
Want to bet on it? For the consumer, would you bet on a month’s supply of food in the freezer? For a business, would you want to bet on a $100 million investment in a factory? Or a $5 billion investment in a new mine?
Even BHP Billiton’s ‘true (global warming) believer’ CEO Andrew Mackenzie won’t trust its huge Olympic Dam to that (utterly unreliable, and expensive) electricity future.
And where exactly is SA going to get its gas for the new power station from? Premier Weather-dill didn’t ‘clarify’ that on Tuesday.
Perhaps he thinks he can get it from Victoria, just like he also expects to get reliable electricity?
Oh right, sorry. Fellow premier ‘bird-killer Andrews’ is not only letting Hazlewood close — letting? letting? forcing, would be more accurate — he’s banned any future gas for Victoria.
ANDREWS has not only banned the fracking technique — which in slightly different geology has given the US as much gas as it wants and oil to make it independent of OPEC and driven the global price way down — but also the conventional drilling that’s been safely around for 150 years.
Taking his cue from Seinfeld, ‘bird-killer’ Andrews has told Victorians: no gas for you!
So we have Weather-dill in SA doubling down on the no-energy policy that has poured both taxpayer money and household budgets into the pockets of all the wind-turbine rent-seeking main-chancers.
And is now doubling down again on a quite literally pathetic amount of — very expensive — battery storage and a gas-fired power station that mightn’t have any gas.
While across the border, ‘bird-killer’ Andrews is displaying even greater insanity — under the Einstein definition; and who can argue with that: after all we are continually lectured that the ‘science is certain;’ and no science is more certain than that of Einstein, surely.
Because ‘bird-killer’ looks at the mess in SA and says: yes please, I want to take Victoria down exactly the same path.
And as I wrote, the duo are not on their ‘Pat Malone’. Queensland’s Labor premier Annastacia Palaszczuk wants to take five million Queenslanders down exactly the same path to much higher power prices and blackouts, while enriching wind turbine and battery money-sucking main-chancers.
WA’s new Labor premier Mark McGowan had initially promised exactly the same future for West Australians — without any long extension cord — until the promise was quietly shelved (but only shelved) in the campaign.
Read my lips or better still just look at the facts — and SA’s past and present reality and Victoria’s not-too-far into the future reality.
Wind alone or the ‘new’ combination of wind plus batteries does not give you secure, plentiful and cheap electricity. It takes your money, directly out of your pockets and via the treasury, and hands it to main-chancers.
It has been calculated that the 21st century’s glamour battery man, Elon Musk has already been given more than $7 billion in subsidies in the US, and counting.
Now he and his peers are heading our way. A conga line of premiers are waiting to greet them — with your wallets and purses.
TRU BELIEVER’S REALITY CHECK
OH dear, one of the world’s most glamorous ‘global warming true believing’ political leaders has been mugged by reality.
New Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, who wants to lecture Donald Trump on the need to cut CO2 emissions, wants to pump more CO2, a lot more CO2.
He wants to continue developing Canada’s oil sands — all 173 billion barrels of them, and a lot of CO2.
“The resource will be developed,” Trudeau said.
How the NBN has delivered just in time
The NBN has delivered, and it has done so in what can only be described as the ultimate — the hit-the-ground running immediate — stress test, rites Terry McCrann.
Sydney airport the wrong place at the wrong time
Sydney Airport has some of the sweetest acreage in Australia but when passengers numbers have dwindled from 9 million in the March quarter to 400,000 in the June quarter, that doesn’t count for much, writes Terry McCrann.