Australia’s best days are ahead of us said Labor Leader Anthony Albanese in his National Press Club speech and Q&A yesterday that covered everything from rats (the test kind) to renewable energy.
Mr. Albanese unveiled Labor’s Powering Australia Plan last month, which features initiatives including shared solar banks (aka “solar gardens”) and community batteries.
In his address yesterday, there wasn’t anything new mentioned – it was just a rehash of the plan’s main highlights and his desire for Australia to become a renewable energy superpower.
- He said more than 600,000 jobs will be created under Labor’s plan
- $52 billion of private sector investment
- Power bills reduced by $275 by 2025 for the average family
“Unlike Mr Morrison’s glossy pamphlet, Powering Australia is underpinned by the most extensive independent expert modelling ever done for any policy by any Opposition,” said Mr. Albanese.
The “glossy pamphlet” Mr. Albanese was referring to is the Morrison Government’s publication titled “The Plan to Deliver Net Zero – The Australian Way”1.
Putting The “Climate Wars” Behind Us?
Mr. Albanese said his party’s plan has the support of the Business Council of Australia, Australian Industry Group, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ACTU, National Farmers’ Federation and a bunch of other NGOs; alluding to Labor also being the “broad church” former Prime Minister John Howard was fond of mentioning.
In summing up his comments on renewable energy, Mr. Albanese stated:
“We can – finally – put the climate wars behind us.”
The sentiment is admirable, but while there’s coal in the ground and gas beneath our feet, the price of peace will be eternal vigilance – well, for quite a while anyway. And it doesn’t matter if those fossil fuels are being burned here or overseas; the end result will be the same for Australia.
A transcript of the speech can be found here, and the Q&A that followed here.
Chris Bowen Already Giving Away Batteries
On a related note, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen has been busy lately spruiking solar batteries of sorts; pledging various towns a community battery. There is a catch of course – Labor winning the upcoming election.
Maldon is a small town in Victoria in the Shire of Mount Alexander local government area that has seen strong solar power system uptake. Mr. Bowen was there on Monday, whipping up an energy storage frenzy.
“Half the houses in the lovely town of Maldon have solar panels,” he said. “But there is not one battery in the town. Perfect place for a Community Battery!”
Still in Victoria, Torquay residents were also promised by Mr. Bowen they’ll be able to store energy generated by their solar panels in a community battery. And so were residents of Coorparoo in Queensland.
So, that’s at least three community batteries already spoken for and around 397 to go. Get in quick, contact Chris today with your community’s pre-order.
Footnotes
- “National identity is too often the refuge of scoundrels and populists feeding on fear and anxiety.” – Stan Grant. Just saying. ↩
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“Australia’s best days are ahead of us said Labor Leader Anthony Albanese in his National Press Club speech and Q&A yesterday that covered everything from rats (the test kind) to renewable energy.”
IMO, that’s pure ‘hopium’.
Meanwhile, climate scientists James Hansen, Makiko Sato and Reto Ruedy say the Earth System will inevitably overshoot the +1.5 °C global mean warming threshold, likely in the 2020s, and likely overshoot +2 °C mid-century on our current GHG emissions trajectory. The Earth System will inevitably become more hostile for humanity and civilisation in the coming decades. Australia will not be immune.
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/tonga-eruption-cooling-solar/#comment-1360477
It seems to me the ALP’s The Plan to Deliver Net Zero The Australian Way is very vague about how and when Australia will rapidly reduce (and end) its dependency on petroleum fuels.
See my comments at: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/real-world-ev-range/#comment-1362303
Also, on Jan 19, Wealthion published a YouTube video titled When Will Energy Prices Come Down? Maybe Never Warns Industry Expert | Art Berman, duration 0:58:06, (see/hear below) of an interview between Wealthion host Adam Taggart and his guest, US petroleum geologist Art Berman. On the question of future US tight/shale oil production, Art Berman says from time interval 0:24:49:
“That’s over. We’ve worked through… the… you know, the flush period of, of another source of oil. We’re not… We haven’t used it all up yet, but the growth has pretty much gone. And so now we’re back to where we were fifteen years ago, and saying, well, if demand keeps going up, where’s the supply going to coming from? And the answer is: We don’t know, we just don’t know. And the market knows that, and that’s why prices are high.”
Slide Deck: https://www.artberman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/WEALTHION-JAN-17-2022.pdf
IMO, there are inconvenient truths here that many politicians, business leaders and media choose to continue to ignore – wilful ignorance and ‘hopium’ peddling that puts all of us in increasing peril.
CORRECTION: REPLACE “ALP’s The Plan to Deliver Net Zero The Australian Way”
WITH “The Australian Government’s The Plan to Deliver Net Zero The Australian Way“.
IMO, Labor’s Powering Australia plan is just as vague about how and when Australia will rapidly reduce (and end) its dependency on petroleum fuels.
So in short, more spin and PR by Labor than actual facts, figures, and logic?
I’m seeing a lot of handwaving, but I’m not seeing much substance. Where are the 600,000 jobs going to be created, who is paying for them, and is this a net increase in jobs, or a gross increase? If 1,000,000 coal miners lose their work (yes I’m aware there’s not that many), and only 600,000 jobs are created, that’s a net loss of 400,000 jobs.
Where is the $52 billion of private sector investment going to come from, what does it cover, and how does if differ to investment under the Coalition? Is it simply Labor claiming credit where none is due?
Is the power bill reduction of $275 by 2025, total savings between the election and 2025, or that power bills under Labor in 2025 will be $275 cheaper than power bills under the Coalition? If so how and why?
George Kaplan,
“…more spin and PR by Labor than actual facts, figures, and logic?”
IMO, the ALP doesn’t have a monopoly on PR and spin, and isn’t the only political party being deficient on “facts, figures, and logic”.
Former chief of the Australian Defence Force, Admiral Chris Barrie, & former international oil, gas and coal industry executive, Ian Dunlop, in their Nov 25 op-ed headlined Australia’s bare-minimum emissions plan rates zero all-round, conclude:
https://johnmenadue.com/australias-bare-minimum-emissions-plan-rates-zero-all-round/
“If 1,000,000 coal miners lose their work (yes I’m aware there’s not that many), and only 600,000 jobs are created, that’s a net loss of 400,000 jobs.”
So why give a wildly inflated figure of more than 20 times, George? Per John Hawkins’ op-ed in The Conversation, dated 29 Jun 2021:
https://theconversation.com/be-suspicious-of-claims-the-mining-industry-creates-non-mining-jobs-161899
Why give a ‘wildly inflated figure’? Because it enables a basic maths argument to be presented without delving into the real cost of abolishing coal. Coal miners comprise the most obvious casualty, but what of all the services and suppliers that support them? Note too that coal is not the only thing on the chopping block.
And yes I’m aware all political organisations use some degree of PR and\or spin, it’s simply that some are worse than others, and some occasions or subjects are worse than others.
George Kaplan,
“Because it enables a basic maths argument to be presented without delving into the real cost of abolishing coal.”
Garbage in, garbage out – incorrect or poor-quality input will produce faulty output.
George, I think it looks like you are EITHER:
A) ill-informed; OR
B) attempting to misinform.
“Note too that coal is not the only thing on the chopping block.”
Yep, having a habitable planet for younger and future generations is also on the chopping block. I’d suggest having a habitable planet longer-term is far more important than shorter-term fossil fuel industry jobs.
https://www.climaterealitycheck.net/download
Geoff, we’ve pretty much always had a difference of view about what’s garbage\fact.
As regards A) ill-informed or B) attempting to misinform, I’ll take C) insufficiently motivate to do thesis research on the subject – which is roughly what it’d take to work out all the connections\domino effect of removing coal miners\companies from the economy.
Habitable planet for younger and future generations being on the chopping block is still highly disputed.
Re community batteries, Alphington in Melbourne was promised one in late November (as long as labour gets in)
Maldon is in the Labor seat of Bendigo.
Torquay is in the Labor seat of Corangamite.
Coorparoo is in the Labor seat of Griffith.
So of the 3 electorates promised batteries in this piece, all are Labor.
Alphington too is in a Labor seat – Cooper.
Again Labor promising goodies to their seat.
Now admittedly that’s only 4 out of 400, but the optics make it look like naked pork barrelling!
There are 151 seats in the House of Representatives which in theory means about 2.3 batteries per electorate – assuming equal shares. Where are the batteries promised to Liberal electorates, LNP electorates, National electorates etc?
Is it simply too early? Does Labor not know where they want to put batteries? Or are batteries a reward for party loyalty?
Side note – I see Bowen’s FB page is claiming 650,000 jobs not ‘merely’ 600,000 and that roughly 540,000 of these will be in the regions not the cities. Seems a slight conflict with the Albanese claim. Typo, difference of vision, something else?
The promise of the alphington battery appears to be due to some 2 1/2years of hard work by a few committed volunteers in the community. (See “village power “) I would like to see more of these batteries across the community, I don’t see the coalition putting their hands up anywhere and they’ve had a lot of time and opportunity to do so.
I still can’t see how the community battery concept works. (I don’t think SQ has done a study on any has it?). One site I came across suggested you pay for storage, but the cost for space is akin to the cost of electricity. How does that save anyone money? What’s the point if storing your own power offsite costs just as much as buying ‘direct’ from your local coal station?
For that matter how does one direct their excess power to the community battery rather than their retailer?