Energy policy formulated by Left

Gas shortage will all be for nothing

According to experts, states on the east coast won’t have enough gas to meet demand by 2022, due to moratoriums being slapped on gas exploration and development (“Gas shortage to hit within three years”, 27/2). To compound this parlous situation, a concerted effort is in play to shut down the coal industry nationwide.

What we have here is the country’s energy policies being formulated not by the federal government, but by a bunch of hard-Left activists. Their goal is to have our energy needs 100 per cent met by windmills and solar panels. But anyone knows you can’t operate businesses and industry according to the vagaries of the weather.

With punishing energy policies of its own and a stubborn refusal to publicly back coal and gas as our primary energy suppliers, Labor is aiding and abetting these extremists.

Dale Ellis, Innisfail, Qld

Australia’s 21 coal-powered stations produce 23.6GW of electricity. China has 993GW of coal-fired capacity with 259GW under construction. To put this in context, this is almost the equivalent of America’s 266GW of coal-fired capacity. If we close our 21 plants, as projected, we will forestall about six months of new Chinese capacity coming online. Our heavy industries, such as Comalco, will relocate as we de-industrialise and global emissions paradoxically will rise as developing nations like India rely ever more on dirty Indonesian and Mongolian coal.
Half our coal exports of 430 million tonnes a year are metallurgical coal for steel production, our number one export alongside iron ore. We may need to get our 1.3 per cent contribution to global emissions into perspective, as electricity generation is responsible for only 35 per cent of these gases. Agriculture and transport would need to be curtailed as well to have any significant impact on Australia’s targets.

Joseph Vagunda, Taroona, Tas

If Tania Constable (“We’d bury hopes by killing mines”, 27/2) thinks no one has an answer for what developing countries should do if denied our coal she cannot have been asking anyone likely to know.

In many parts of Africa, remoteness makes solar and battery mini-grids a far better prospect. In India and China, air pollution is a horrendous problem, making those countries keen to shift to renewables as fast as possible.

As chief executive of the Minerals Council of Australia, perhaps Constable finds it more convenient to restrict her inquiries.

Derek Bolton, Birchgrove, NSW

Not so civilised

In defence of his proposed Ramsay Centre degree programs (“Cross-disciplinary path to broader learning”, 27/2), Stephen McInerney points to the lack of any existing university course in Australia that integrates the so-called great works into “a coherent whole”. But in doing so, he is deploring the lack of study into something that has never existed.

What we like to think of as civilisation often develops in haphazard, coincidental and improvised ways. To assume that there is an overarching, orderly and consistent narrative to this magnificent jumble of ideas over the span of more than 2000 years is the conceit of mediocre minds. Connections do not constitute unity.

David Salter, Hunters Hill, NSW

Rate drop fear

Could someone please explain to me why the RBA is considering an interest rate cut because of falling house prices (“Eyes on RBA as house prices fall”, 27/2)? It was buyers who drove up house prices in an unsustainable frenzy of activity during 2012-17.

As predicted, prices have fallen but ,self-funded retirees and others rely on earned interest for income. If the RBA cuts interest rates, it is effectively penalising self-funded retirees for the excesses of others.

Janet Dixon, Cleveland, Qld