I was playing a game of memory with my youngest grandchild the other day. I’m not the type to just let her win, although I do sometimes point to the correct card. She doesn’t really need much help because she is very good at the game.  After several rounds, she declared, ‘I is on fire.’ I nodded in agreement.

I was reminded of this fine sentence given the week that B1 had. The Climate Change and Energy Minister has been on fire in terms of providing misinformation on the net zero transition as well as making misleading statements about other elements of his portfolio, such as what is happening to the nuclear – ‘newkiller’, in B1 speak – industry overseas.

Given that I wouldn’t mind if the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) came after me for providing some climate-related ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation’ – go on, I dare you! – perhaps the jumped-up panjandrums at the agency need to go after B1 first. Let’s face it, he has been caught telling fibs.

Recall here that the AHRC made a submission to the Senate Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy. ‘The submission recognises that climate-related misinformation and disinformation potentially diminish human rights by undermining informed public debate.’

I might be a bit slow, but I simply don’t follow this sentence. But the thing is, according to the President of the AHRC, climate misinformation and disinformation could delay action ‘by sowing doubt and confusion’ – no, not doubt and confusion – and ‘erode public support and undermine trust for evidence-based climate policies…. This can slow necessary action to address climate change.’

Is this guy for real? Evidence-based climate policies? Does he really think that B1 cares about evidence-based climate policies, particularly as the rest of the world is madly walking back from net zero, a fact he refuses to accept.

But talking about evidence, B1 has been in a world of pain about the loss of arable land and native vegetation that will be required to meet the government’s ambitious emissions reduction targets by rolling out more and more wind turbines and solar panels.

He has become particularly peeved by the group of genuine conservationists, Rainforest Reserves Australia, headed by Dr Steve Nowakowski. This group has developed a comprehensive renewable energy map of all existing and proposed solar and wind projects.

B1 doesn’t want to know about the environmental losses associated with the renewables rollout because it spoils his story. He doesn’t care about the loss of remnant vegetation or biodiversity because he’s not sure what remnant vegetation or biodiversity are.  He certainly doesn’t care about the loss of arable land – pay off the affected farmers and get on with it.

But he stumbled big time when he claimed that only 12 per cent of the figure quoted by Nowakowski would be required for the required energy transition. The problem is that he had confused New South Wales for all the states covered by the National Electricity Market (NEM). Missed by this much – not.

To further discredit this group of real environmentalists, B1 throws in the line that Nowakowski supports high-density nuclear power that uses very little land and can access existing transmission lines. But hang on, this is a good thing: all sensible environmentalists overseas support nuclear power.

And this is where B1 further stumbled into the misinformation minefield by completely misrepresenting overseas developments in the nuclear industry. He is wont to quote a very out-of-date example of a small modular reactor pilot in Idaho that was cancelled four years ago because of cost and logistical considerations.

Sadly, for B1, the industry is now going like the clappers, particularly in the US.  Eleven small modular reactor projects in the US were approved in August of this year. Microsoft is recommissioning one of the Three Mile Island reactors. Bill Gates’s TerraPower is going great guns, having dealt with the problem of one of the necessary inputs to its innovative plant only being available from Russia.

Newly commissioned AI and data centres are all seeking dedicated power sources which offer completely reliable and affordable electricity – not wind and solar – with small modular nuclear reactors being the preferred option.

Nuclear is also moving along in Canada, France and the UK. Both the UAE and South Korea have recently completed traditional nuclear plants, and Japan is reopening some of its plants with the full backing of the new prime minister. By the way, China has built several nuclear plants and there are likely to be more in the future.

B1 must be living on another planet if he can’t see these emerging developments.  He might ask his staff to check the website of the World Nuclear Association to get the lowdown.

If the week wasn’t going badly enough for B1, then along came the news about the further cost blowout of Snowy 2.0, Malcolm Turnbull’s lovechild now adopted by B1. This ambitious pumped-hydro project, which doesn’t produce any power itself, was going to cost $2 billion and was expected to be running the water up and down the hill by now. After all, Mal had used several drink coasters to arrive at that figure.

What with Flo the tunnelling machine getting stuck, the lead contractor going broke and other massive engineering complications, the project could be used as material for a follow-up to the Keystone Cops comedy skits. Another Flo had to be brought in to undertake additional tunnelling.

We are now told that the revised estimate of $12 billion for the project is too low and that the final cost will significantly exceed this figure. The current best guess is around $20 billion and note that this doesn’t include the additional transmission lines that are needed to connect the project to the grid.  All the costs will be recouped over time from electricity consumers under the rules governing the grid.

But here’s the thing to note: most of the blame for the recent problems with Snowy 2.0 can be sheeted home to B1 – who else?  He is desperate to have the project completed by 2028 and told Snowy Hydro to do whatever it takes to ensure this deadline is met. The perverse incentives generated for the contractor would be obvious to anyone other than a politician throwing around other people’s money.

The NEM is becoming increasingly dysfunctional, with low or negative prices during the day and high prices at other times.  The potential closure of some coal-fired plants is looking like a disaster waiting to happen, not least because their spinning turbines are critical to maintaining the grid’s stability. Snowy 2.0, which will have a substantial capacity, is sorely needed, although it won’t be enough. The nickname Blackout Bowen could really catch on.