NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean’s green energy dream has been labelled a “train wreck”, with spooked investors steering clear – forcing the federal government to intervene.
NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham said Mr Kean’s promised “avalanche” of green investment didn’t materialise – forcing taxpayers to cough up at least $600m to fund a public gas-fired power generator in the Hunter Valley.
- Matt Kean committed NSW to 100% renewables via $30b of private investment.
- Private industry was spooked by his green roadmap and investment didn't flow.
- Taxpayers are now shelling out to build power plants to keep lights on.
“Matt Kean was promising an avalanche of private sector investment – not only in renewables but in gas peaking plants and pumped hydro – to keep the lights on when the sun’s not shining and the wind’s not blowing,” Mr Latham told Sky News.
“He promised $30b of new investment. But it hasn’t come about. AGL have pulled the pin because of the uncertainty his roadmap has caused in the energy market.
“It’s left a huge hole.”
TRIGGERED
Mr Latham said it wasn’t just the $600m Hunter Valley spend – announced mid-May by federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor – that Mr Kean’s incompetence had triggered.
“Let’s not forget Tallawarra in the Illawarra – the 330mw gas peaking plant. The NSW government had to put in $85m of taxpayers’ money to make it happen,” he said.
“Kean has destabilised the market. The private investment hasn’t been there and now we need enormous public money to do the obvious thing and provide power generation to keep the lights on.”
Social media commenters rallied behind Mr Latham’s concerns.
Scott Sherrington wrote: “Go away Matt, join The Greens! That is where you belong.”
“The federal Labor and Liberal parties have gone nuts and are destroying Australia,” wrote bad 666.
Magic Mike wrote: “Kean is just doing the bidding work of his factional master and his lobbying company – conflict of interest?”
Mr Kean’s green energy roadmap was announced in 2020 promising 100 per cent renewable energy for NSW off the back of $30b private investment.
PRICES
At the time, it received harsh criticism from federal Liberal Party colleagues, industry experts and NSW’s own Parliamentary Development Committee.
Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor fired a broadside at Mr Kean saying his go-it-alone $32b renewables “roadmap” threatened to increase power prices.
Of particular concern, Mr Taylor said, was NSW’s failure to place a cap on costs that could be passed on to consumers.
Mr Taylor had attempted to obtain copies of Mr Kean’s cost-modelling, however, these requests were ignored.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported last November that Premier Gladys Berejiklian had demanded the roadmap bill be passed priot to Christmas – triggering a 30-hour plus marathon sitting of parliament.
Almost 250 amendments proposed by One Nation’s Mark Latham were rejected. Mr Latham warned at the time that Mr Kean’s roadmap would increase the cost of power by up to $400 a year per household.
AGL CEO Brett Redman said he was concerned the NSW government was doubling up on private investment already in the system.
“It’s important we let the market make those big investments and not muddy up what technology can do,” he said.
Even Mr Kean’s own parliamentary colleagues on NSW’s powerful Parliamentary Development Committee warned him last September that renewable energy alone was incapable of meeting the State’s growth demands.
Committee member Natasha Maclaren-Jones said at the time that Mr Kean’s plan would not deliver renewables that were “viable” or “reliable”.PC
The trainwreck coming. Subsidised wind and solar power can DISPLACE coal but not REPLACE IT! https://www.riteon.org.au/netzero-casualties/#217
It would be interesting to know how Kean would empower pumped hydro when the wind doesn’t blow & the sun doesn’t shine. Turbines could come to a grinding halt!
It’s not the first time M Kean has presented a road map that went over a cliff! Who can forget his Koala Saving roadmap. I wonder how many Koalas he eventually persuaded to sit in the stadium through a rugby match?? That one would be enough to scare off investors from following any of his future roadmaps.
And the NSW Planning Minster was no help there either! Next time he announces ‘That sounds like a plan’ would be a good time to run a million miles in the other direction if the Koala overlay that was passed by his office is any indication!
Wise investors!
And Gladys takes her advice from this person! No wonder it wasn’t until the PM told her how to run the Covid counter foil, did she get something right for NSW!! Any one heard of the George St and other development debacles where she sent so many long term businesses to the wall? No wonder she publicly clings to Covid issues and leaves other projects to others.
He needs to join the Greens, but as he is a supporter of Gadys I doubt that will happen
It will be interesting to see how Chris Minns sets a new direction for State Labor and should he move just slightly to the right, State Liberal will be more green that Labor. Should this happen Gladys will be left with having to move right if they are to survive the next state election, towards more traditional conservative values which I am sure will result in a series of backflips otherwise there will be little to distinguish the two party’s ideals. Time for a reshuffle Gladys and #1 change should be Matt Kean to the back bench.
Lock Kean in a secure psychiatric facility. His energy plans expose his off-the-scale lunacy!
We have the greatest store of cheap, reliable, 24-hour energy just under our feet and all the insane ‘climate’ hoaxes and selfish political machinations should be absolutely, completely, unequivocally buried deeply, – is once we’ve extracted our magnificent resources and returned the land to green pastures and woodlands!
Well said Jennifer!
Jennifer around Newcastle there are coal mines that have tunnels extending out under the ocean, one I am aware of, the John Darling Mine, closed during the 1970s because the coal seam was too far out to be commercially viable to extract.
All along the east coast there are coal deposits that have never been mined, many extending far out under the ocean. It was estimated that this coal if mined could supply the present world demand for at least 400 years, add our other coal resources being mined and not yet exploited.
Then consider the oil and gas resources, like the old Commonwealth Oil Refinery capped oil wells in western Queensland, Roma District and further afield, capped in the 1900s because Middle East oil was cheaper to extract and transport. Consider the oil-gas field under Coober Pedy in SA and many other sites not proceeded with after discovery. Consider the vast shale oil deposits in NSW and Old, and then the UN Agenda 21 – Sustainability signed by Keating Labor that included state lands being converted into National Parks effectively locking away timber, potential dam sites, minerals and energy deposits.
Recently the Morrison Coalition Government decided to permit offshore exploration for oil and gas and they should be applauded, Australia must become as self sufficient as possible, as soon as possible. And this should include uranium.
Not long ago the NSW Government supported by their own leftists and Opposition leftists rejected a One Nation proposal to lift the ban on uranium mining in NSW!!!
Economic vandalism must be stopped.
I learnt during decades of senior management in manufacturing industry that accountants have their place but engineers provide the most objective technical know how for assessing cost and benefits.
Go woke, go broke.
ps: Batteries store energy and deliver energy for short periods, unlike generators that can produce energy when needed and non-stop as required.
While our Federal Team is fantastic, Mark Latham is the best Leader in NSW state Parliament, and there was a time when I never thought I would ever say anything like that!!
Now that he has lost his former Labor colleagues and is ‘doing his own thing’ he is probably the best state Leader in the country!!
Cheers Melanie
It has long been my opinion as both sides of politics lean further to the left and embrace globalism that Australians, being mostly middle of the political spectrum (centre), desperately need the patriotic politicians like Mark Latham and others like him, regardless of what side they have belonged, to join together and create a centre, centre-left and centre-right alliance to counter the leftists and to save our nation and sovereignty.
When the UK that quickly dumped Australia and our producers in favour of the UK joining the EU (EEU) now demands “net zero emissions” pledges as a condition of a new trade agreement it’s time to tell the UK to back off, and remind them that Australia met all of our UN IPCC Kyoto Japan emissions reduction targets, one of the very few UN member nations that did, and remain on target to meet Paris Agreement emissions targets today. Noting that this is an exercise in futility and a solution for a problem (climate hoax and creatively accounted warming trend modelling) that doesn’t exist, a politically based hoax.
I am waiting for a politician to explain what effect Carbon Dioxide (CO2) has on natural climate changes and why they refer to CO2 as Carbon (C) pollution, CO2 is essential for life and at 410 ppm (0.041%) in the atmosphere could be at least 1,500 ppm and Earth would continue to become a greener place with increasing food crop yields to feed the people.
Kean wants to be a power player, so he’s playing with power.
As with all left-wingers, he is nothing more than a delusional dolt.
Surely it’s well past time for this shallow-thinking idiot to be moved on.