Victoria election will have profound national significance

Daniel Andrews is a major contributor to the current energy crisis. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

State elections rarely have profound national significance. An exception will be the 2022 Victorian election scheduled for November 26.

Subject to a $40-50 million drilling program to confirm Exxon conclusions, Victoria has the low-cost on shore gas reserves to transform the national economy and at the same time neutralise most or all of the carbon emissions caused by that gas.

To my knowledge on the carbon front Victorian gas is unique in the world and it does not require fracking. It adjoins both the Longford treatment plant in Gippsland and the Eastern Australian pipeline system.

My regular readers know how the gas was discovered by Exxon, but its development was banned first by the Coalition government in 2014 and then by the Andrews Labor government. Both were motivated by gaining green /teal votes in the inner-city seats rather than the national and state interests.

Exxon was so confident that their reserve figures were right that it made an in-principle agreement with BlueScope to develop the gas before the 2014 ban. Exxon estimated that the gas approximately equalled the original Gippsland gas reserves.

The Esso/BHP Longford gas plant in Gippsland. Picture: Stuart McEvoy.

I returned to the subject first because of the totally unnecessary gymnastics being forced on new energy minister Chris Bowen and secondly the totally unnecessary huge price hikes Victorians and other eastern seaboard Australians have been suffering.

Victorian voters have the chance to both bring rationality to the Australian energy market and lock in the federal government’s emission targets. It is inconceivable that at least one party will not campaign in the state and national interest rather than simply aim for green/ teal inner city seats. It may need to be a party outside the Liberals or ALP.

In the latest energy emergency some of the statements by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, the architect of the latest bans, and a major contributor to the national energy crisis simply took my breath away. I was equally stunned that neither the Coalition nor the local media challenged him.

Exxon discovered the gas reserves in Gippsland. Picture; Stuart McEvoy.

Remember the Gippsland gas not only does not require fracking but is dissolved in incredibly pure water that would transform the water outlook of the dry parts of the region. The farmers unnecessarily suffered severely in the 2019-20 Gippsland drought. Used properly the water can also be used to grow carbon absorbing plants to offset the carbon in the gas

And the gas is so deep — between 500 metres and 1200 metres ---- that the water and its gas can be extracted without posing any danger to the Gippsland underground rivers called aquifers, which are used by farmers.

Against that background I will quote the Premier of Victoria:

Premier: “No, we are not going to frack our agricultural land, our dairy country, our wine country. It doesn’t belong to one company; it belongs to all of us. And from a food and fibre point of view our agricultural industry is critical to our state’s future, so why you’d be putting fracking wells all throughout that is beyond me. And we won’t be doing that. We said we wouldn’t, and we do what we say”.

Truth: The gas does not require fracking, makes the farm land drought safe and farmers will have a second source of income. There will be drilling on farmland but it can be managed with the farmers. It’s true the “gas belongs to all if us” because the lease was relinquished in frustration and is now held by the state which can use the Exxon research to commission test results at short notice.

Premier: “What the experts tell us is that there’s very low likelihood that there’s significant onshore conventional gas reserves in our state – that’s not a politician’s view, that’s what the experts tell us,”

Truth: We do not know the “experts” the Premier refers to. However he allocated $42m to a friendly committee to determine whether there was onshore gas in Victoria. The committee dutifully found that it was highly unlikely that there was onshore gas.

Barracouta gas field rig in Bass Strait. Picture: Sharon Walker

But, incredibly, the high-cost committee deliberately did not look at the vast reserves of Gippsland’s lignite gas because their development was banned. Nor did it examine the reserves of Lakes Oil in Gippsland and gas in the Otways near the South Australian border

Whether it be Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews or the Greens or the teals there is a constant barrage of words that say that green energy is substantially cheaper than carbon energy. That’s true when the wind blows and the sun shines but when that doesn’t happen – particularly at night--- back-up generation methods or battery storage is required. Snowy Hydro now owned by the federal government, has fantastic backup capacity in its hydro plants which are being expanded, albeit an expensive process. Right now, with power prices high Snowy Hydro is making large sums which enables it to buy a wind farm. The hydro and the wind farm are far more valuable because the hydro can generate power when the wind is not blowing so reliable power can be offered. Similarly, a gas fired power station that is carbon neutral can be linked to solar or wind power to provide a constant source of low-cost low carbon power. In Victoria’s case it would enable a reduction in brown coal power generation resulting in huge carbon reductions. But in the minds of most teals and greens, that carbon power is out.

In defiance of the Victorian ALP, the National Secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union Daniel Walton has spoken up for those suffering from the Victorian gas bans and says the gas sector is critical to ensure a smooth transition to more renewable energy.