By Andrew Bolt ~
Green energy and green bans on gas exploration are driving up power prices and killing business. Ten per cent of power generation has already been shut down and the Australian Energy Council now warns we risk “deindustrialising” Australia.
But wasn’t this always the aim of green zealots?:
A decade of political dispute and government paralysis over energy policy is to blame for wholesale electricity prices spiking this year to the equivalent of a $50-a-tonne carbon tax, the power industry warns in a submission to the government’s energy security review.
Warning that the country is facing an investment crisis in new power generation, the submission says that more than 5000 megawatts of generation, representing 10 per cent of national capacity, has been decommissioned since 2012 and is not being replaced…
The [Australian Energy Council] submission to the government’s Independent Review into the Future Security of the National Electricity Market … says the numerous carbon and energy policies initiated by individual jurisdictions, including state-based renewable energy targets and gas moratoriums, and the bitter political fight over Labor’s carbon tax, have resulted in increased costs and greater risks for energy users…
High prevailing gas prices, largely due to state moratoriums and increased export demand, meant gas generators could not economically provide baseload power at current wholesale electricity prices. The submission says access to a stable supply of cheap gas is “critical”.
AEC chief executive Matthew Warren said the risk of inaction would be the “de-industrialising” of the country. “That really is the underlying issue,” he said.
“We can see the impact on households but we are also seeing the effect on industrial companies, food processing, aluminium, mining, any of our trade-exposed industries. It is compromising the viability of Australia.”
Here is evidence from just the past couple of weeks on the devastation being caused by green policies to close coal-fired power stations (because of the global warming hysteria) and gas exploration bans (because of the fracking hysteria).
Victoria is losing a power station that produces up to 20 per cent of its supplies:
The brown-coal-powered station in Victoria’s east employs about 750 people, and will close on March 30.
It is also banning all exploration on land for gas, even by conventional gas drilling:
Victoria has become the first state to ban fracking, but oil companies and big business are worried it will lead to rising energy prices and supply issues.
Legislation passed the state parliament’s upper house on Tuesday and will see all onshore unconventional gas exploration and development, including hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as fracking) and coal seam gas, banned.
It also means a moratorium on exploration has been extended until June 30, 2020.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry says banning exploration of the state’s gas reserves until 2020 will ‘prolong the uncertainty around energy pricing and supply issues’ for Victorian businesses.
Victorians will lose gas supplies:
VICTORIANS could face gas and electricity shortages over the next five years, a new report from the nation’s energy market regulator has warned.
Victoria’s gas production is set to drop 38 per cent between this year and 2021, which could lead to “domestic gas shortfalls”, the Australian Energy Market Operator has warned.
The annual Gas Statement of Opportunities report, released on Thursday, said Victorians could face winter gas shortages in 2019 if an underground gas storage facility is not refilled.
South Australia closed two coal-fired power stations and relies dangerously on wind power, creating a shambolic power supply that is devastating business:
BHP’s power bill at the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia is expected to rise by $US30m ($39m) this year because of higher gas prices and the cost of contracts that offset the risks of power price spikes.
“It is the combination of underlying gas price increases and the overall mix of generation capacity in South Australia and the intermittency that comes with that,” BHP’s head of Australian mining, Mike Henry, told The Australian…
In its first-half profit report last month, BHP revealed the 14-day outage at Olympic Dam, sparked by a statewide blackout in September, cost it $US105m.
Business SA now estimates the total cost of the outage was $450m, up from a previous estimate of $367m. This is based on BHP’s estimate and recent conversations with other big industrial users hit by the September 28 outage, such as Nyrstar’s Port Pirie lead smelter, the Whyalla steelworks and OZ Minerals’ Prominent Hill mine…
In the longer term, BHP has called for an end to state-based renewable targets…
The national power market operator has warned that Queensland’s push for a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 could lead to higher power prices and greater instability in the network…
The organisation pointed to the recent South Australian blackouts as a potential signpost for the consequences of renewable energy generation.
Resources Minister Matt Canavan:
In the past month, the Australian Government’s expert adviser on Australia’s natural resources, Geoscience Australia, has reported that there could be undeveloped onshore gas resources of about 30,000 PJ in Victoria.
What has been the Victorian Government’s response? They’re putting a stop to all onshore conventional and unconventional gas exploration and extraction so that these gas resources – amounting to around 40 years’ supply for the eastern market – stay in the ground.
To underline this insanity, there is actually little evidence of dangerous man-made warming, and even less evidence that anything Australia does to its emissions will make the slightest discernible difference. Nor is there the slightest evidence of real risk from gas fracking, let alone on conventional on-shore gas drilling.
These are fake scares creating huge damage. Once again, the scaremongering is more dangerous than the scare.
Andrew Bolt writes for the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, and The Advertiser and runs Australia’s most-read political blog. On week nights he hosts The Bolt Report on Sky News at 7pm and his Macquarie Radio show at 8pm with Steve Price.
Read more excellent articles from Andrew Bolt’s Blog . http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/
PA Pundits International 
Grumpy Old Man
Thu 03/09/2017
You’ve said it all:
“…global warming hysteria…” is causing “fake scares creating huge damage. Once again, the scaremongering is more dangerous than the scare.”
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Climatism
Thu 03/09/2017
Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
“To underline this insanity, there is actually little evidence of dangerous man-made warming, and even less evidence that anything Australia does to its emissions will make the slightest discernible difference. Nor is there the slightest evidence of real risk from gas fracking, let alone on conventional on-shore gas drilling.
These are fake scares creating huge damage. Once again, the scaremongering is more dangerous than the scare.”
A very important read for the health, wealth and prosperity, not only for Australian society and its environment, but a lesson for the entire world.
This green energy, virtue-signalling insanity must stop.
And to think China and India are opening a new coal-fired power station every week, with thousands in the pipeline. Germany, as well, reverting back to coal after its disastrous €Triliion green-energy experiment “Energiewende” failure.
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