Apart from some false equivalence of blame (Labor said it would support the govt’s CET so the blame for inaction clearly lies with the LNP), this analysis should serve as a wake up call for the govt, especially coming from a former leader of the federal parliamentary Liberal party:
…as a Liberal government supposedly believing in small government, little regulation, market processes and private enterprise, they now feel at home “shirtfronting” the board and management of a significant power company, AGL, pressuring them to reverse a board decision to close the Liddell power plant in 2022.
While it is reasonable to expect that government should define a regulatory framework within which the power market would operate, this is certainly a “new” interpretation of “market forces” and of what it means to be a “conservative” or a “Liberal”. Isn’t it much more “socialist”? Is this but the early stages of the nationalisation of the power sector?
… we all emerged from the last election saturated with the “promise” of “jobs and growth”. Just how many thousands of jobs, and billions of dollars of investment and growth, have been lost due to this short-term, political opportunism and game playing?
Finkel went to great lengths to recognise the political reality of the government’s objections to the best and second best, responses – namely, an emissions trading scheme and an emissions intensity scheme – proposing a technology neutral clean energy target (CET) to provide a clear direction and certainty… it still admitted a sizeable reliance on coal-fired power…
It is worth pointing out that a true “conservative” response would be a purely market-based emissions trading scheme, using a market-determined carbon price to ensure the most cost-effective transition.
The suggestion that we may now need a new, supercritical, coal-fired power plant to fill a capacity gap left by the closure of Liddell is, quite frankly, farcical. When the private sector says they will not build or finance it, it is simply just a sop to the National party to even raise it as a possibility. But then, of course, in our “new conservatism” we don’t respect what markets are telling us, do we?
This “gap” would be easily filled by a combination of base-load solar thermal projects, batteries and some better demand management well before 2022. Having set the regulatory direction of the “market” with a CET, the government should stand back and let the technologies compete to deliver the most cost-effective and sustainable outcome.
It is also worth recognising that a new coal-fired power plant, if it could be built, may simply accelerate the closures of other older, less efficient, plants, so not actually closing the perceived “gap”.
Turnbull needs to rise well above this mire and deliver the leadership he promised … If he does, I believe the electorate would cut him a lot of slack. However, to continue as he is, he will surely lose the next election. It will be his failure to address the rising costs of power, housing, childcare and school fees, and other key elements of the cost of living, that will be decisive with voters.
Too bad the LNP (including but not just Abbott) seem dead set on losing instead of doing the right thing by not only the nation, LNP voters, but also their own party. Just crazy.
