Picking a winner in the energy battle of politics versus profits

Both Coalition and Labor federal governments are guilty of threatening and now enacting legislation to cap the prices that minerals companies can charge for their products (“Albanese faces Senate fight on energy price-relief deal”, 12/12).

Both governments seem to have forgotten that these companies have to plan construction expenses, marketing and risk management many years in advance, as opposed to the major parties whose mentality too often appears to extend for only three myopic years. Both governments also ignore the fact minerals companies often have to wear years of large exploration losses before experiencing a profit, thus deserve protecting and maximising a hard-earned profit.

The Albanese government seems unaware minerals companies actually contribute massive dollars and jobs to the overall Australian economy. Its new industrial relations legislation, price caps, emphatic ban on even considering a domestic nuclear industry and grand but basically empty rhetoric prove this.

Further, while happy to criticise minerals companies, both Coalition and Labor federal governments have not had the guts to override state governments’ ideological and irrational moratoriums on mineral exploration.

Peter M. Wargent, Mosman, NSW

Apparently gas industry CEOs are outraged that the Australian government is protecting the Australian people and not their massive profits and bonuses (“Price caps could break the local energy market”, 12/12).

These huge profits are made because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and not through any skills or hard work of the gas industry. These CEOs seem to forget it’s our gas. It’s not their property, it belongs to the people of Australia.

All they do is remove it from the land that all Australians own and supply it back to us. They can charge a fee for doing that, but our gas still belongs to all Australians.

Doug Steley, Heyfield, Vic

I didn’t need much convincing but Nick Cater has persuaded me (“Renewable dream yet to weather the storm of reality”, 12/12) that while there was a time when the politically useful idiots resided on the crossbenches and in the media, they now form the ranks of the frontbenches on both sides of the floor.

Our Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, appears not to understand all the difficulty inherent in running a grid entirely with renewables. He appears not to have noticed what has happened in other, much larger, economies when they have tried to do this. He seems to think we can overcome the problems by simply building more and more wind and solar generators.

Well here’s a reality check: solar panels produce nothing during the hours of darkness which, allowing for low-production mornings and afternoons, means they are useless for more than 60 per cent of each and every day, averaged over a year.

Wind is notoriously variable, even offshore. The minister seems to think if you have enough turbines, located in a sufficiently dispersed manner, this will cover the problem. Even if this were the case, you then have the problem of huge losses in the transmission lines (most not yet built or paid for) over distance.

Batteries, even the largest, produce power for city-scale markets for minutes, not days. Hydro? Apart from Tasmania, this remains a pipe dream. When are they going to start telling us the truth?

K. MacDermott, Binalong, NSW

Jim Chalmers parrots the line that renewables are “cleaner, cheaper and more reliable” (“Firms forced to show green credentials”, 12/12).

Cleaner – if you ignore the mining and processing of rare earths and manufacture of solar panels and wind generators; cheaper – once the solar and wind farms are built and transmission systems installed over vast distances of land and sea. Reliable? Surely he jests.

William Mapleston, Ashgrove, Qld

When will the media call out the government’s lie that people will be $230 better off with their power bills?

With government intervention, Australians may possibly pay $230 less than the forecasted increases; however, simple logic is that if one pays more for their current bill than their last then they have had an increase.

Ian Porter, Subiaco, WA