Andrew Bolt: The strange case of a minister’s warmist campaign
NSW Energy Minister Don Harwin on Wednesday called the Morrison Government “out of touch on energy and climate policy” but there’s so much going on with renewable energy in NSW, you have to ask what’s behind it all, writes Andrew Bolt.
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Let’s mention NSW Energy Minister Don Harwin’s mate, so we can perhaps better understand his global warming rant. Harwin yesterday called the Morrison Government “out of touch on energy and climate policy” and urged it to aim for an incredible net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“We need to … put science, economics and engineering ahead of ideology,” this alleged Liberal said. It’s easy to dismiss Harwin as an alarmist and hypocrite. After all, here’s a warming ideologue accusing sceptics of following ideology, when science actually confirms there’s no imminent climate catastrophe. There’s been little extra global warming this century, fewer cyclones, more rain and record grain crops.
NSW ENERGY MINISTER SAYS PM OUT OF TOUCH ON CLIMATE
It’s also easy to dismiss Harwin as a sucker for green causes. He boasts that NSW has $26 billion in potential investment in clean energy, plus interest in a big pumped hydro scheme that must not be “spooked by poor policy”.
But what difference will all these subsidised projects make to the temperature? Zero. So why would Harwin promote more such schemes? Who is in his ear?
The website of a lobbying firm, Clean Energy Strategies, boasts it is “proud” to have advised clients involved in renewable energy. One was energy company AGL and another our “most successful private pumped hydro consortium” which needed “multi-million financial support from the federal government”. Clean Energy Strategies is the company of Liberal faction boss Michael Photios and his wife, whose 2011 wedding in Phuket was attended by Harwin. And Harwin’s energy adviser until recently had worked for Photios’s main lobbying firm, Premier State.
Photios is very influential in preselections for NSW Liberal seats. He and his allies dumped Senator Jim Molan and nearly knocked off Craig Kelly, a federal MP who campaigned against AGL’s plan to shut the Liddell coal-fired power station, rather than sell it to a willing buyer and competitor.
Photios is now moving against former PM Tony Abbott, another sceptic and critic of AGL’s plans. For instance, he spoke to the North Shore Environmental Stewards, a global warmist group which wants recruits to join the Liberal branch in Abbott’s seat.
I’m sure Harwin acts from conviction in promoting NSW’s crazy emissions target. But what nudge might he also get from his too-powerful mate?
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