When the sun finally sets on the West, the English-speaking people will find out that they are as fragile and expendable as the starving third-world children used by aid organizations as pickpockets.
Modernity is held together by cheap energy, not the rainbow-padding nonsense of progressive politics that does little but catch fire on the frayed wires of civilization, much like Rudd’s notorious pink batts.
Yesterday, millions of Australian homes on the east coast were told to switch off non-essential appliances after blackouts began and extended short-falls loomed.
Energy suppliers cautioned the affluent Teal-heartland of Sydney’s Northern Beaches that they were at risk of losing power as temperatures plunged.
Suggestions such as ‘consider how many rooms need to be heated’ were made, presumably targeted at the mansion-dwelling community who voted to put ‘Climate Change’ above energy security.
Green-tinged Queensland suffered a similar problem, with the situation so concerning that the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) put in place a $300-per-megawatt-hour price cap.
As a result, everyone is turning to gas suppliers in a panic, demanding that gas companies ‘find gas’ and offer it at ‘low prices’ – or else? This would be after the government went out of its way to deny the gas industry in favor of their preferred ‘renewables’ mates.
The gas industry is unsurprisingly reluctant to help out, considering they require $500-per-megawatt-hour to profit.
As a side note, climatecouncil.org.au insists, ‘Output of oil and gas in developed nations needs to be cut by 74 percent by 2030, with a complete phase-out by 2034.’
That is going to be tricky with renewables leaning on gas to cover the giant voids in output. Basically, if you’re still breathing, somewhat warm, and well-fed – you’re probably a burden to the climate goal.
Back in the real world, if governments and energy suppliers are begging people to turn off their toasters, it’s a good thing the Australian population ignored Labor’s demands to switch to electric vehicles or we’d be waking up to streets littered with expensive, useless cars.
The price cap has created its own problem, with the Australian Energy Regulator issuing a letter to power generators instructing them to ‘bid capacity into the market’ regardless of the cap as blackouts threaten across the country.
The existence of price caps causes energy providers to withhold supply to protect revenue – which is why socialist-style intervention on market prices rarely works.
The government gives ‘stuff away for free’ but businesses can’t do that or there will be nothing for tomorrow.
According to an article in The Australian, AER chair Clare Savage had this to say:
‘Recently the AER has observed that following the application of administered pricing in the NEM, generators are withdrawing available capacity from the market. This behaviour may be motivated by generators seeking to avoid the administered pricing compensation process in favour of the AEMO directions compensation process. As you know, market participants must not, by any act or omission, whether intentionally or recklessly, cause or significantly contribute to the circumstances causing a direction to be issued, without reasonable cause.’
New Energy Minister Chris Bowen has done a lot of theatrical waving of his hands, pretending that there’s ‘nothing to see here’ as the country faces an energy crisis.
‘The operator tells them there is no need to be concerned about blackouts in the immediate future,’ Bowen said, giving a speech that should never have to be made in a responsible, first-world nation. ‘Nobody should turn off any power usage that they need, that they are using for their comfort or their safety. Nobody should do that.’
When the energy grid was truly competitive, Australia had reliable, cheap, and plentiful energy.
The interference of government has had disastrous consequences, with public money being tossed at ‘renewables’ to make them look more ‘profitable’ when in reality, they are propped up by taxes.
Productive energy sources have been punished by severe restrictions on access, expansion, and investment. Banks have gone so far as to consider denying loans in the fossil fuel sector to keep green-themed shareholders happy.
The same people who did their best to demonize and dismantle the fossil fuel grid are now complaining about the shutdown of coal-fired plants. Well, kids, this is a glimpse of the future promised by Labor, the Greens, Teals, and Liberal moderates.
There is a solution to both ‘climate woes’ and energy security in the form of nuclear energy – a technology from which Australia is uniquely placed to benefit.
Labor has given a definitive ‘no’ on nuclear, almost certainly because they felt their green investment portfolio shudder in terror. The introduction of nuclear to the Australian grid erases the need for solar, wind, and battery storage – destroying profits for the ‘green economy.’
At the same time as federal Labor has been out – quite literally – begging coal-fired plants to increase their operation to stave off disaster, Western Australia Labor Premier Mark McGowan has promised to close all state-owned coal-fired plants by 2030 and gift renewables barons $4 billion in public money.
He complains that the ‘glut of excess power’ produced by them is costing money – so one is left to wonder why McGowan’s idea of saving $3 billion over ten years involves spending $4 billion.
‘We’re standing at a point where to continue business as usual would lead to around $3 billion of losses by the end of the decade. Those losses either have to be covered by taxpayers or would lead to dramatically higher power bills for West Australians – while still continuing to emit higher levels of carbon emissions. Either way, it’s simply not sustainable in the long term.’
Why not just close the power stations and let the renewables sector expand on its own? Or is it not profitable without a drip attacked to the state coffers…?
No, don’t bother looking for the Liberal Party. It was former-Liberal Leader Zak Kirkup’s idea in the first place. The great news is that Western Australia doesn’t have an extension cord long enough to cross the desert, so McGowan will have nowhere to hide when it all goes horribly wrong.
All this is taking place while bored billionaires purchase coal-fired power stations for fun and shut them down unnecessarily.
The result of closing power plants is a sudden and drastic reliance on gas – of which there isn’t an infinite amount to go around. Shortages are being flagged, even if resources are expanded.
Gas was meant to prop renewables up for decades, but the determination for ‘climate action right now’ is resulting in the ridiculous culling of gas reserves which will, in turn, limit the lifespan of the renewables industry.
This is all complete madness when a few strategically placed nuclear plants could permanently solve the energy crisis with next-to-no emissions.
For those who say, ‘oh nuclear is expensive!’ weren’t they telling us that ‘no expense is too much to save the world from extinction?’ We’re not told the total green price tag, but subsidies for renewables alone were set at $11.6 billion in 2021.
The answer is sitting in front of Australia, but governments, the energy industry, and mining companies have no interest in pursuing nuclear until they have dug up and sold every last dollar from other resources that are set to be devalued when the ‘Nuclear Age’ arrives.
Energy supply doesn’t care much for virtue-signaling politics or the ambitions of career politicians. It is a world of engineering absolutes, brick walls, and fail points.
Reliable, stable power is essential to sustain the lives of millions of people where even short-lived blackouts pose a serious threat.
Read rest at Spectator AU
Yes, I see where they are now pushing “cave” subdivisions carved out of the hills.
Look out Biden the Baffoon wants the same thing for America to appease Greenpeace idiots,OPEC,Russia and China this is a act of Treason by Biden a Globalists Democrat
A few weeks back I commented that Australis relied very heavily on oil, gas, coal and various mineral ores to transition to a “green” economy and was roundly criticised, mainly by those who misunderstood what I was saying and assumed I was opposed to combating AGW, and that is a problem nor only in Aus. but worldwide, that pointing out the facts is anathema to some. Similarly with nuclear power.
“oh nuclear is expensive!’” Precious few mention the more than $5 trillion annual subsidies benefitting fossil fuel.
There is an interesting project CORE POWER.
I now have to say I don’t know what you are on about either. My comment is based on the absurd push for net zero and the abandoning of the most reliable form of energy. It is about the appalling lies and cover up by politicians and the media about “Global Warming” and the people who believe “the science is settled.’ Many times we have been fed total lies about temperatures, sea level rises, Barrier Reef and much more that doesn’t even come from or supported by the IPCC. There seems to be no environmental concerns over the permanent damage to the environment by vast wind farms and the enormous amount of steel and concrete that goes into their approximately 30 ton bases. Multiply that by hundred or thousands of them. The same goes for solar panel farms covering viable land. Let us not forget who benefits from this push, who are we buying all these panels and turbines from AND remembering they cannot be recycled. We have also seen wedgetail eagles chopped by the turbines, a major problem worldwide. Kill off your raptors and bats and you will have pestilence beyond belief. It is now like many are totally believing the computer models that the whole 2099 scenario is built on, not science please note, computer models. A reminder that the Sun is the principle mover of climate not us and I am quite sure you cannot predict sunspot or solar activity by computer programmes 78 years into the future. Last, consider please the mind numbing mining that will have to take place to rip the planet’s surface like nothing before it to supply the copper, bauxite, and all the rare earth minerals etc. to make these monstrosities. There is so much more!
Thanks for regurgitating the Exxon/Peabody/Koch axis propaganda. Baaaaa, baaaa.
You are joking of course.
Nuclear power has been about twice as expensive as fossil fuels. Yet, it is much cheaper then weather dependant energy. I have often heard claims that wind and solar are now competitive with coal. Yet, the reality is shown in places where such power has been put to use. Germany triple its cost of power by adding 30% renewables to its mix. California has three times the cost of power than the average for the US after adding 20% renewables.
Without assess to hard data it is still obvious that the claim that there is more than $5 trillion annual subsidies benefitting fossil fuel. I have read articles by environmentalists on how such figures are arrived at. The claim is made that certain high level taxes should be charged on fossil fuels. The fact that these taxes don’t exist is then declared to be a subsidy. This is an outrageous concept. A subsidy is providing money to an entity, not the failure to take money away. What needs to be done is all subsidies and mandates be removed for both fossil fuels and renewable energy and let the free mark determine which energy will be used.
You choose to ignore the $5+trillion annual subsidies fossil fuels have been receiving. As is the norm with deniers. All governments have conceded these subsidies are reasl and need to be addresses.
” have often heard claims that wind and solar are now competitive with coal.” That is because they are. Germany’s admitted problem was abandoning nuclear and nothing else.
\”These high prices result from uncommonly large fixed costs that are bundled into kilowatt-hour prices and passed on to customers. These costs cover much of the generation, transmission and distribution fixed costs, as well as energy efficiency programs, subsidies for houses with rooftop solar and low-income customers, and increasing wildfire mitigation costs.?
I have been closely following the climate change fraud for 20 years. Germany’s increased power costs due to action on climate change started to happen before they decommissioned their nuclear reactors. Just like Biden blaming Russia for high gasoline prices, that is just an excuse. There is a general pattern of weather dependant energy increasing the cost of power. When George Town Texas went to all renewable energy when it is available, the monthly power bill of the average household went from $250 to $1250. As a result of adding renewable energy the cost of power in the UK has sky rocketed. Adding weather dependant energy to the US east coast is projected to drastically increase their cost of power.
You claim that renewable energy is the same cost as coal. If you truly believe that then you should support removing all mandates and subsidies for both renewable energy and fossil fuels and let the usage be determined by the free market. That is one thing we can agree on.
The most recent US budget is $6.818 trillion. Claiming fossil fuels are receiving $5+trillion in annual subsidies simply is not believable even on a world wide scale. When reading articles written by climate change activists, I have seen a lot of excessively creative accounting. The one resulting in the largest figure it is to declare that fossil fuels should be taxed at a very high rate. That fact that these taxes are not being collected is then declared to be a subsidy. Another technique is to assign all infrastructure improvements to a power grid to be a support for fossil fuels. Yet, the power grid is also used by weather dependant energy. In addition, expensive upgrades are necessary to support weather dependant energy.
Totally on board with you David L. The diatribe about 5 plus trillion dollars sounds like something out of an Al Gore movie!
Boffey has been replying to some of my comments and by reading them it’s clear he is boffo and has consumed much of the climate scam kool-aide.
I struggle with the mass stupidity in our country. We have the best coal, best uranium, worst politicians, worst greenies and the most ignorant people. This matter is totally part of the Great Reset to reduce our country to serfdom, remember their slogan “you will own nothing and be happy!” Not the rich of course. Remember that will include hungry and freezing in winter and hungry and roasting in summer. Add to the mix the push for electric cars, that should make it all really interesting.
I fail to understand what you are on about.
One coal fired power station has had 2 out of 4 units out of action due to needing maintenance. Now we will be in this mode for a few months, with no excess, relying on people to turn off non essentials to get thru our Winter… A lot of homes now have solar panels to either feed into the Grid or to charge their own in house batteries. And yet still having problems despite this, Green energy to the rescue…. Fail This is a great example for the Greens when you start turning off Coal fired baseload power. But Im sure the Greens would rather us sit in the dark and freeze, than use coal fired power.
So your alternative is just burn more and more coal regardless of the consequences then?
You think that there are consequences to Australia burning more coal. This is false for two reasons. Consider a situation where people are getting into a life boat, and a six year old is afraid he weighs too much and will overload the boat. Yet, Sumo Wrestlers are getting into the same life boat. That is Australia’s situation on world wide emissions. The country emissions are 1.1% of the world total. With such a small percentage of the world total, there is no need for Australia to reduce emissions.
The more important reason is that there is no reason for the “Sumo Wrestlers” such as China to reduce emissions. The climate change narrative simply isn’t happening. According to the Fifth Assessment Report of the scientific body of the UN IPCC, extreme weather events are not increasing. An article on this web site shows that forest fires are not increasing the burn area. The UN climate models are running hot compared to real world data. The model that most closely matches real world data, INMCM5, predicts only 1.4 degrees of warming by 2100. The model that most apocalyptic predictions is based on, RPC 8.5, obviously isn’t going to happen. Yet, action to address climate change has caused a lot of damage in Australia.
What a load of drivel. Interesting that you cite the IPCC whe3n this site routinely states the IPCC is just propaganda and misinformation.
“An article on this web site” Yeah, right, as if that were an arbiter of facts.
Your response shows that you are unable to respond to my comment. You either can not or chose not to comment on the fact that Australia emits only a small fraction of the world’s emissions. As such, you simply reply that it is drivel. You are unable to respond to the fact that the UN Climate models are running hot, you simply reply that it is drivel. You dismiss the article on forest fires for no other reason that it appears on this website, but offer no data showing that the fires are increasing.
The fact that the IPCC is the primary driver for action on climate change yet the scientific body admits that extreme event are not increasing strongly support that the claim is valid. The IPCC is the not only group that has come to that conclusion. I suspect that you, David Boffey, believe that the IPCC is a reliable organization. If I’m right, then in trying to demean the organization to counter its claim on extreme weather events you are being less than honest.
So, David Boffey, what is your suggestion to keep the lights on day and night?
Going by the current situation, renewables are not helping with the current shortage of electricity as they aren’t producing because of the weather, so no amount of (more) renewables will change situations like today. Just more renewables not producing. And please don’t tell us that batteries will solve our problem because having been fully charged, they only last a very, very short time until they are run flat.
Consequences you ask? What’s worse. No power at all going to homes and businesses or coal plants pumping out electricity which they have been doing all of my 73 years of life, with no problems? I know what I prefer !!