by JOHN MIKKELSEN – AS WE wind down to the dawn of a new year, it’s worth recapping how Labor has delivered “net-zero” on many major energy promises.
At the time of writing, there are still a couple of weeks for PM Anthony Albanese to see out his pledge repeated about 100 times before the 2022 election that power prices would fall by $275 in 2025.
- Meanwhile, China is building a new coal-fired power plant about every week.
- Even NASA admits that higher CO2 levels have contributed to higher crop yields and a greening of the planet.
- Albanese has billions in the Santa Sack to subsidise renewable power – despite a national debt about to soar past a trillion dollars.
Instead, Santa’s Christmas sack contains a message from the Grinch, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, ending federal rebates.
At the same time inflation is on the rise and indications are that interest rates are also likely to rise again, delivering another hit to Aussies struggling with mortgages, rising rents, food and fuel prices – all linked back to their energy bills.
STRUGGLING
The reality is average household power prices in some States have increased by about $1200 – and much more for businesses struggling to stay afloat. Many have already pulled the plug or departed our shores.
No worries though if you are a major consumer such as Rio Tinto’s Tomago aluminium smelter or the struggling Whyalla steel works.
Our government has billions in the Santa Sack to subsidise “affordable” power despite a national debt about to soar past a trillion dollars.
In this case “affordable” does not necessarily equate to “reliable” with the increasing rush to intermittent, unreliable and costly renewables, so the years ahead should prove interesting.
For those Green Dream Believers who still think an almost total reliance on renewables is the answer, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has just warned that coal generators will have to remain part of the Australian landscape until 2049.
This will leave only a year to deliver on Albo and Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s fabled “net-zero by 2050”.
Good luck with that – and with reaching their promised “82 per cent renewables” by 2030, seeing the current level is around 40 per cent.
Australia is hell-bent on destroying the environment by clearing native forests, flattening mountain tops and ruining arable farm land to establish mainly Chinese-sourced eye-sores that will all need replacing in 15 to 20 years, creating huge disposal problems.
We now know some wind turbines contain big quantities of asbestos in their braking components, along with poisonous BPA contaminants that can leach into the air and groundwater.
Meanwhile, China is building a new coal fired power plant about every week along with expanding renewables and nuclear energy.
According to Google’s AI, it exceeds our annual CO2 emissions in just 12 days.
Australia remains the only OECD nation with a crazy ideological ban on nuclear energy, while close allies such as the US and the UK are embracing the latest technology including small modular reactors, or re-powering old plants such as Three Mile Island to meet the huge energy demand of AI data centres.
Albo and Bowen apparently think we can run new data centres that will consume more power than a New York skyscraper with “The Windmills of their Minds” and back-up batteries which won’t see them through the day when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.
Will they manage to get just one “green hydrogen” energy project off the ground and running to meet another pledge to make Australia a “green hydrogen superpower” backed by $2b in subsidies?
Oops, quoting Google’s AI overview again: “Reports indicate that dozens of green hydrogen projects in Australia have been mothballed, cancelled or significantly delayed. One analysis from early 2025 noted nearly 100 proposals, of which 61 individual projects had been ‘archived’.”
PREDICTIONS
Australia produces just one per cent of world global CO2 emissions, so despite Albo and Bowen’s dire predictions, if we cut all our emissions to absolute zero at further huge cost to our economy, it would have practically zero effect on world climate.
Former chief scientist Alan Finkel admitted that to a senate hearing several years ago before trying to walk it back after copping flak from climate catastrophists, of which there are many.
Currently CO2 makes up a tiny 0.04 per cent of the world’s atmosphere which is at the lower end of the geological time scale.
Past eras have shown levels more than 10 times higher, when plants and coral reefs thrived, such as during the Ordovician period.
It is an essential trace gas for all plants and animals so be careful what you wish for – if levels drop below 0.02 per cent, life as we know it could cease to exist.
The belief that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are the main driver of climate change is an unproven hypothesis based on computer modelling.
IGNORES
It ignores natural influences such as cyclical changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun, gradual movement of the magnetic poles, huge emissions of gasses and water vapour from under-sea and above ground volcanoes, changes in ocean currents and increased sun spot activity, to name a few.
Even NASA admits that higher CO2 levels have contributed to higher crop yields and a greening of the planet.
Google’s AI bot again: “NASA studies and a large body of scientific research confirm that elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels have contributed to the “greening” of Earth and, in some cases, increased short-term crop yields. This is known as the CO₂ fertilisation effect.”
Ancient ice cores have also shown that raised CO2 levels have always followed temperature increases by hundreds or even thousands of years.
Meanwhile, water vapour is a much more prevalent and effective greenhouse gas, but not even Albo and Bowen have enough hubris to tax the clouds.PC
Good article John but it’s worth asking has Labor done anything right? They’ve certainly stuffed up our energy system but the latest example of how they ignored rampant anti-semitism and hate speech, resulting in the horrible Bondi massacre by a couple of deranged Islamists, is hopefully the last nail in the metaphorical coffin for Albo and his motley crew, especially Tony Burke and Penny Wong!