I rode my motorbike to the National Press Club today to hear what Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen had to say about our ever-increasing energy costs.
(A bike, you say? With diesel at $2.50 per litre, there was no way I was driving my car all the way to Canberra…)
Chris Bowen, largely ignored by a hopeless Opposition, is well-polished in the art of never answering questions. His experience as COP31 co-president has put less of a media-training heel-lift in his step, and more of the confidence of someone who can do whatever he wants.
The Coalition have let the Energy Minister become untouchable.
Bowen answers questions confidently … while saying nothing.
Gone is the strange smirk he used to wear upon suddenly finding himself in a position of real power.
Now, he plays chief virtue signaller statesman on the world stage with all the other left-wing cronies who want you to ‘own nothing and be happy’.
But don’t blame him.
Before turning to Bowen’s National Press Club address, I thought I’d have a quick look at the Coalition’s role in our current energy nightmare. It’s not pretty.
Four of Australia’s oil refineries closed under the previous Coalition government. Australia now has only two. After Australia’s refining capacity disappeared under the Coalition, Labor’s big idea appears to be throwing millions at a study for a possible replacement refinery in WA. Meanwhile, power bills keep climbing and diesel prices are insane.
The current energy mess began with the Coalition. The Howard government introduced the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target. It also banned nuclear energy. Malcolm Turnbull announced Snowy 2.0, and the Morrison government took the final investment decision to put the Commonwealth in full ownership of Snowy Hydro.
The formal regulatory process for HumeLink, that massive 500 kV transmission line meant to unlock Snowy 2.0 and southern renewable zones, began in 2019 under the Morrison government.
Some early corridor studies, and the initial project approvals happened while the Coalition was in government.
It’s a complete farce to hear Chris Bowen wax lyrical about the anti-renewables Coalition when the conservatives started the renewables idiocy we now find ourselves in.
Labor did not reverse the Coalition’s architecture. They supercharged it.
The Albanese government set the 82 per cent renewables policy target, created the Capacity Investment Scheme to underwrite new generation and storage, and poured money into Rewiring the Nation to force the transmission build.
Snowy 2.0 has continued under Labor even as its cost has more than doubled and its timeline has slipped.
HumeLink has moved from planning into construction with federal and state Labor support, despite successive cost increases that have taken the project from early estimates of around $1.3 billion to now somewhere in the realm of $5 billion.
The AEMO’s Integrated System Plan, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and ARENA lock-in the renewables push. These institutions have been maintained by both sides of politics.
Feasibility studies, environmental assessments, and regulatory tests have been completed under successive governments.
The result is the same no matter who is in charge. Large transmission projects with chronic cost overruns, socialised network charges, and an electricity generation mix that requires expensive firming capacity to keep the lights on when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.
The worst part is that consumers don’t get to choose which party’s version of the transition they fund. They simply pay.
Transmission costs are recovered through regulated charges. Subsidies are recovered through power bills and taxes. Intermittency costs appear as higher wholesale prices and the need for backup. Regional communities host the towers and the easements while the political class in Canberra and the Labor-controlled state capitals congratulate themselves on their climate virtues.
The Uniparty’s favourite move is to pretend the other side is solely responsible. Labor acts as if the entire renewables machine appeared in May 2022. The Coalition acts as if it never championed Snowy 2.0, never started HumeLink’s regulatory process, never maintained the RET, and never allowed successive oil refineries to close.
Both parties know better. Both have skin in the game. And both prefer the comfortable fiction that higher power prices are someone else’s fault.
Mr Bowen recently posted on Facebook that wholesale energy prices had decreased 47 per cent in the past 12 months.
At the National Press Club today, I asked him:
…in many cases retail supply charges have increased and time of use windows have changed, making any consumer price changes minimal, and less transparent. Minister, who is actually benefiting from the halving of wholesale electricity prices?
He confidently responded with a non-answer. It will flow through to the consumer so wholesale price reductions are a good thing.
The bottom line is that lower retail electricity prices are with your $275 saving Labor promised in 2022.
Chris Bowen talked about how the wind and sun are not subject to the whims of the Hormuz Strait, that nuclear energy is the most expensive form of energy, and that Australia will take advantage of data centres run only on renewables.
It was classic nonsense.
The next time you receive your electricity bill, have a look at the details and compare it to previous years’ bills. You can’t because they change the way you are billed.
So, who is benefiting from the halving of wholesale electricity prices? It isn’t you and me.
Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is the Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. If you would like to support his writing, or read more of Michael, please visit his website.
