Tom Minear: Energy Minister Chris Bowen distracted from climate fires by nuclear ‘hot air’

Energy Minister Chris Bowen tweeted gleefully when a nuclear project collapsed. Tom Minear questions his silence on bad news for offshore wind and electric vehicles.

For the man in charge of Australia’s net zero mission, you wouldn’t think the cancellation of a groundbreaking clean energy project would be good news.

But Chris Bowen gleefully tweeted up a storm last week when the company behind the most advanced small nuclear reactor in the US scrapped its first plant amid soaring costs. It was proof, the Energy Minister boasted, that Peter Dutton’s pro-nuclear plan is “more hot air”.

A few days earlier, the world’s largest offshore wind farm developer pulled the plug on two American projects because rising costs also meant they were no longer profitable, while BP’s renewables boss declared the sector was “fundamentally broken”.

The Opposition’s only energy policy is small nuclear reactors.

Today, the most advanced prototype in the US has been cancelled.

The LNP’s plan for energy security is just more hot air from Peter Dutton. pic.twitter.com/qXjd5XcEnP

— Chris Bowen (@Bowenchris) November 9, 2023

We can only wonder what Bowen – a self-professed offshore wind nerd who wants Australia to be a world leader – thought about that, because he had nothing to say on social media.

He was similarly silent as Tritium, Australia’s leading producer of electric vehicle fast-chargers, closed its Brisbane factory and consolidated its operations in the US to stay afloat.

Anthony Albanese had regularly visited Tritium, hailing it as a “great success story”, while Joe Biden announced their US plant and sent his Secretary of State to check them out down under. The company epitomised their green dream – spurring a manufacturing revolution through the net zero transition – until it became a nightmare in Australia.

Anthony Albanese on one of his regular trips to Tritium’s Brisbane factory. Picture: Toby Zerna

To be fair to Bowen, his basic criticism of Dutton’s nuclear advocacy is not wrong. Small modular reactors are expensive and unproven, and will be no help in this critical decade.

But he doth protest too much. His tweets came after he co-opted bureaucrats to produce a $387bn costing of Dutton’s plan, which a respected expert slammed as dodgy. (Ironic too, given Bowen’s fury during the election over government modelling of his policies.)

Bowen is promising to produce 82 per cent of our energy from renewables by 2030 which, as he likes to say, is now 74 months away. In his 18 months in charge, investment in new wind and solar farms has stalled, NSW has moved to extend the life of Australia’s biggest coal-fired plant, and the market operator has sounded the alarm about grid upgrade delays.

While not all of this is necessarily Bowen’s fault, the election of a Labor government has not been the climate panacea he made it out to be. So here’s some free advice for the minister: if you’re really worried about hot air, stop tweeting and start putting out these fires.

Originally published as Tom Minear: Energy Minister Chris Bowen distracted from climate fires by nuclear ‘hot air’