Australia is last rat to jump ON the burning Climatitanic ship with symbolic 43% “SafeGuard” leap

While all the rats are jumping off the Unreliable Wreck, Australia is leaping onto it. Every country that uses electrical-generators for magical Global Climate Control has expensive electricity. They’ve lost industries, jobs and sovereign power as well as hot showers.

Our energy prices are already a train-wreck, but Super-Albo is here to take that failure and double it. While Germany, France, Austria, Netherlands, Poland, China, India, Hungary, Greece and the United Kingdom are all ramping up their coal, we’re going to use less to fend off the floods and hold back the tide. It’s pretty much just down to us and our friends, those crazy Canuks and the cockoo-Kiwi’s to save the world. All doing the climate voo-doo.

Magical pagan symbols and messages

The term “action” doesn’t mean any actual activity — apart from lots of paperwork:

Albanese told parliament: “Passing this legislation sends a great message to the people of Australia that we are taking real action on climate change.”

Instead of a message, Australians were hoping to get a $275-a-year cut in their electricity bills.

Meanwhile the rest of the world is sending a message to Australia — and they are saying: We Want Your Fossil Fuels.

That’s a loud signal there in the price of coal and gas:

Newcastle Coal Price, Graph.

Trading Economics Price of Newcastle Coal

TTF Gas Price. Graph. August 2022

Trading Economics Price of TTF Gas

 

Magical wands of Climate “SafeGuard” policies

How exactly is Australia going to cut emissions even further? It’s through a hidden bomb called the “SafeGuard Mechanism” which a secret Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) designed to punish the biggest corporate emitters — which of course means they’ll pass on those costs to the sucker consumers. It was legislated in secret on the last night before Christmas in 2015. Thank Malcolm Turnbull for that gift buried in the fine print that apparently almost no one in Parliament even knew about.

Remember in July 2014, when Al Gore flew out to cuddle up to coal miner Clive Palmer, who held the last vote Prime Minister, Tony Abbott was waiting for so he could Axe That Carbon Tax? Palmer had forced him to add in a proviso for a review of an emissions trading scheme that would only happen if and when all the major players signed up. The Australian ETS came into force the day before the 2016 election, yet almost no voter knew. The dollar values were small and symbolic — but the legislation was locked and loaded just waiting for the Labor Government to win. And now all they have to do is turn the knobs up — adjust the targets, and the money will start to flow as a subsidy feeding unreliable energy in Australia. But its also possible that money will head offshore and subsidize jobs and unreliable projects overseas.

It was a brilliant piece of political maneuvering. Having brought in the hated ETS through the “conservative” Coalition, the conservatives could hardly campaign against “an ETS” they themselves had legislated, and presumably, neither could Clive. It thus neutralized and prevented a rerun of the landslide 90 seat victory Tony Abbott scored in 2013. It’s not clear how critical the Clive Palmer condition had been — perhaps it just meant Turnbull could say “it was part of the Abbott legislation” and Turnbull would have got it through anyway, but it might have stopped Abbott and other Liberals rebelling against it or even looking closely at it?

So now we have a 43% carbon reduction target, but no one really knows the details:

Anthony Albanese’s climate politics power play leaves nation in the dark

Dennis Shanahan, The Australian

Yet, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen had to concede there will be changes to the mechanism, which will be subject of a discussion paper “later in August” and which provides an opportunity for the Greens to meddle.

“We’ll be releasing a discussion paper on the detailed design mechanism on the safeguard mechanism in August, probably. That will be up for consultation. The Greens have indicated they will probably have feedback on that,” Bowen said.

It is the treatment of this mechanism, not nearly as clear as Albanese makes out, that is creating deep concern within the resources sector and the 215 industries and entities subject to the rules.

The threat of technicalities about various types and classes of emissions ruling out new gas and coal projects or even nullifying existing projects is real and yet to be addressed as the government revels in its climate change success.

The cheapest way to generate carbon credits in Australia was the bargain auction system Tony Abbott organised. But those tons of “carbon” avoided were a mere $14 a ton, nothing like the cost of wind and solar projects. Presumably the Labor Government will have to curb that, or their co-dependent friends in the Renewables Industry and foreign banker traders won’t have much fun in the market. We can’t have farmers earning too many carbon credits can we?

Meanwhile the new “target” and labyrinthine carbon laws make bureaucrats absolute kingmakers. Should your coal mine go ahead? (Don’t run an election campaign against the ruling party.) Clive Palmer’s mine got axed today, (the irony) because even though the Great Barrier Reef is healthier than AIMS has ever measured, his coal mine (and not all the ones in China) threatens the reef. Perhaps if the Labor Party had needed the one Senator Clive has, it’d be different…

The mine would have seen the annual production of up to 10 million tonnes of thermal and coking coal for a quarter of century, creating up to $8.2bn in export revenues and employ as many as 500 people. The project is 130km northwest of Rockhampton – and just 10km from the Reef World Heritage area.

Australia, still the greatest global patsy.

10 out of 10 based on 95 ratings

148 comments to Australia is last rat to jump ON the burning Climatitanic ship with symbolic 43% “SafeGuard” leap

  • #
    A happy little debunker

    Major pieces of government action with no detail.
    43% reduction of an inert gas.
    A ‘Voice’ to parliament referendum

    And then Albo, having done all the ‘hard yards’, is taking 4 weeks holiday (including 2 parliamentary sitting weeks).
    Not even PM for 3 months and he needs a ‘well earned break’ – disgusting!

    630

    • #
      Sean

      It’s not an inert gas, it’s the gas all life depends on.

      430

      • #
        Murray Shaw

        Yes, it may be the “gas of life”, but for mine it is inert, in that in volume it will snuff out fires!

        140

        • #
          Ronin

          It’s got hundreds of uses, inc. feeding the planet, snuffing electrical fires, keeping my beer interesting, etc ,etc.

          180

    • #
      yarpos

      I expect more of this style of thing from Albanese and Co. Heavy on the virtue signaling and light on detail. Watch what happens with “the voice” proposal. There will be lots of tap dancing when anyone asks for specifics.

      190

    • #
      Dennis

      The PM said that his holiday would be in Australia but did not say where in Australia he planned to be on holidays?

      Obviously for security purposes and reasons the location is not made public, that’s been standard procedure for past prime ministers and even when they go to certain overseas locations like a war zone.

      But this did not deter PM Albanese from taking a pot shot at former PM Morrison on ABC Radio referring to his overseas (Hawaii) family holiday at the end of 2019 and saying that nobody knew where he was. He also mentioned that the Deputy PM will be acting PM while he is on leave, and added that nobody knew who was in charge when PM Morrison was away. That is a deceptive comment, when any PM was away the DPM became the acting PM, part of the duties of a Deputy PM.

      By the way, the NSW Rural Fire Service just took delivery of a $6 million helicopter to be stationed at Dubbo NSW and also for use by the NSW Emergency Service to assist people in the central west districts of NSW. End of 2019 Opposition Leader Albanese others including media criticised PM Morrison for going on holidays during bushfires and failed to mention that there is no Commonwealth of Australia, Federal Rural Fire Service or Federal Emergency Service because they are State responsibilities.

      120

      • #
        Dennis

        We should not be surprised, this person claimed to have been an economics adviser to Labor PM Hawke during the election campaign but others corrected him, he was never located in Canberra or working for PM Hawke, he was employed as a staffer at the electorate office of junior Cabinet Minister Tom Uren who was also a far left faction member.

        110

      • #
        yarpos

        Their is more to leadership and being respected than hiding behind State responsibilities. I dont think ScoMos “not my job” attitude did him any favours and he got that feedback pretty early. If he fails to see the bigger picture then he isnt a leader and so it panned out. He was lucky he had his Shorten to help him over the line previously , he was probably gone then had Labor had a decent candidate. Its a testament to how low he sank in the publics eyes that Albanese got over the line.

        20

    • #

      How on earth is this 43% target to be measured and who will do the measuring along the way to the year 2030? The Federal Guv’ment? The UN? An Independent Mob? And how will it be scientifically measured? Are their any current Australian certified Standards on how to do this? How about the CO2 offsets, being the Australian environment (trees, crops, plants) and the surrounding Australian waters that absorb CO2? Are they being taken into account?

      NO. As this is just a load of Political BS and posturing while China and many others take the mickey (doing what they want) with the UN paper pushers looking the other way.

      Australia is already way below Net Zero and could build many more Coal Fired Electricity Generating Power Stations and still be below Net Zero.

      As it has been said before: Net Zero is the average IQ of all Australian ‘Pollies’.

      50

      • #

        AGO – Australian Greenhouse Office measures it and has been doing so for years. My husband used to work for them, would you believe and was one of Australia’s leading carbon modelers. He wrote the model the tracked all the land use changes of carbon using satellite data, mulch, bark, roots, leaves etc, plus roads and fires and farms. They never tried to do water / lakes / oceans. Perhaps that has changed, but I doubt it.

        Most other nations don’t even bother or want to count forests and land use changes because it doesn’t help them. They cut their forests down a long time ago so it doesn’t count. But it is the largest single contributor to Australia meeting the Kyoto agreement because we just needed to stop land clearing in 1991 and let that fast growing scrub and eucalypt grow back.

        90

        • #
          Tombo

          Those nations that have removed their forests, of course don’t have large forest fires which are in turn used by media for spectacular footage driving climate anxiety.
          Especially eucalyptus forests which have evolved to spread by fire, and the Koalas that evolved to eat them. The most spectacular TV footage of all. Thus for preserving forests, and having people live near forests, nations are used as justification for reducing coal usage and increasing deforestation as an alternative to using coal.

          00

  • #

    Meanwhile, China just decided to stop cooperating with the Biden administration on climate concerns. Looks like they got what they wanted, which is a developed world weakened by its own ignorance, and no longer needed to keep the charade up. Their scientists aren’t stupid and know what legitimate science is supposed to look like.

    It looks like they’re practicing for a naval blockade to starve Taiwan into submission. They don’t want to make the same mistake Russia made of not cutting off Ukraine’s supply lines. They also know there’s no point in annexing a smoking pile of rubble.

    If you think there’s a chip shortage now, the disruption to the supply chain that’s coming will make what happened during COVID look like the good times.

    380

    • #
      Leo G

      … China just decided to stop cooperating with the Biden administration on climate concerns.

      Does that mean Australia now openly fuels Chinese Climate Change facilitators with our exports of coal and gas to the PRC and our coal-fired, China-sourced renewable industry?

      140

    • #
      Fuel Filter

      Read this from 8/5. This is what they did instead of shooting down her plane or firing any shots.

      It’s VERY short, and his comments are quite insightful. (No reason to give you guys any quotes. It’s that short.)

      https://voxday.net/2022/08/05/a-quiet-response/

      00

      • #
        Tel

        The Chinese master stroke is a sand embargo!

        How the heck is that going to work? Not saying I’m exactly a microchip expert, but I think there’s a lot of sand in the world … Silicon is 30 percent of the Earth’s crust.

        What could possibly go wrong?

        20

      • #
        yarpos

        As stated in the Babylon Bee, the CCP let Pelosi return intact as punishment to the USA.

        40

  • #
    reformed warmist of Logan

    Ozi Ozi Ozi, Oi Oi Oi!!
    We’re doing great in the ’22 Birmingham Comm. Games – 50 gold/138 total/at last count – though U.K. rapidly closing in – now 47 gold/129 total!
    We’re also doing incredibly well in the global “Leming/Economic-suicide” dance.
    Probably the top 5 jurisdictions in the world at this point would be: (drum roll please) …
    U.K., Germany, N.Y., California, & good old Australia!
    The shame of it all is, there’s another 33 months til the next federal election.
    Hopefully the vast majority wake up to all this Bull-tish well before then?
    Warm regards, reformed warmist of Logan.

    250

    • #
      Ronin

      Don’t forget good ol’ La France, they are at half output on their nukes and dropping because of the warm weather, and don’t have much else, so they will become nett importers, from whom is a problem .. for them at least.

      40

  • #
    Kalm Keith

    That word, evokes so much, brilliant.

    Climatitanic .

    ClimaTanic?
    🙂

    120

  • #
    David Maddison

    Who gabe Alba-sleazy permission to destroy Australia?

    301

    • #
      Murray Shaw

      The ALP, the Greens, The Teals, and Brigit Archer, that is who.
      Take all their names and addresses so in a couple of years we can take legal action against this cabal of economic destroyers.

      400

      • #
        Mike Jonas

        More than The ALP, the Greens, The Teals, and Brigit Archer, the person responsible for Albo’s win was Scott Morrison, that is who. By going flat out for net zero he gave the voters no choice. He simply had to be removed.

        Peter Dutton, we can’t hear you. If you don’t start flat out opposing net zero then we will have to remove you too. How can you not understand that opposing net zero will give you a landslide win like Tony Abbott’s all those years ago.

        521

        • #
          Cookster

          It wasn’t just that he weakly submitted to net zero but that he didn’t attempt to make allowance for mining and agriculture and fluffed using net zero to repeal the ban on nuclear energy. Now we have the idiot Chris Bowen openly opposing the only zero emissions energy source that can keep the lights on. Morrison was a very weak PM and because of this we now have something much worse.

          But I give up. Let the blackouts and unaffordable power bills begin so the complacent and ignorant Australian populace is forced to learn the hard way. We are governed by fools voted for by fools.

          40

          • #
            Philip

            yes Aus was once led by strong men who made sensible decisions. That has gone and is very problematic.

            20

      • #
        Bruce

        Don’t forget all the “churnalists” and Whackerdemics”.

        100

      • #
        Ronin

        Don’t forget the 35% primary votes, that’s why I laff when elbo talks about having a ‘mandate’ LOL

        60

      • #
        Serge Wright

        Absolutely, these people all need to be held to account for the destruction that is now locked into the economy. The claim of “real action on climate” is pure fraud. We emit 1% of GHG in a world where China and the developing world are on a FF binge. These people are not stupid and realise our emissions are meaningless to global climate and they also understand what will happen when we shut down our FF industry and attempt to rely on a form of energy that is not suitable for an energy grid and will create a 100% dependency on China, a country that is becoming increasingly hostile and signalling to start the next great war. If these actions are not considered as treason, I don’t know what is ?

        100

    • #
      Lawrie

      Ignorant people David. Many who voted for Albo were looking for more money to solve the “Gap” problem or the increase in child care subsidies even if they earned $500000. The fools think electricity will always be there at the flick of a switch and they think saving the planet will not cost them a dollar more. They will not realise they have been dudded until those big emitters start shutting down and jobs are being lost or until the lights go out and stay out for a day or week. Some folk only take notice when hit between the eyes with a lump of 4 by 2. Even then the children won’t be really affected and it is the children who have been brainwashed.

      There are times when I despair at the stupidity of voters. Australia is ruined I am sad to say. Unfortunately Dutton is no Abbott so there is no white knight coming to rescue us. There is Matt Kean and that Liberal idiot, Guy, in Victoristan making it worse.

      491

      • #
        Honk R Smith

        I think we have to keep in mind that people are being purposely misled.
        On a highly organized epic scale.
        We haven’t seen such darkness since pagan pre-history and the corruption of the pre-Reformation Church.

        272

    • #
      Dennis

      The Greens and the Union Movement supported by the pale green Teal Independents Party.

      50

  • #
    GlenM

    The Federal Opposition has to fight back on this and get the message across. The weak on3s in their ranks have to be ( thinking of the right word) umm., sidelined. They have a few years to t he next election- so go hard. This country is going down if something isn’t done about this crazy energy issue.

    172

    • #
      David Maddison

      The Liberals don’t have a clue. The so-called “moderate” faction which is anything but moderate and really more Left than the centre or right of Labor dominates the Libs.

      For example in Vicdanistan, the state Libs are setting the same CO2 emissions targets as Dictator Dan, 50% by 2030. Federal Labor are “only” 43%.

      The state Libs think they can win by being as or more Left than Labor. There is thus no doubt they will lose the next state election.

      Most elected members in the Liberals, whether federal or state, simply don’t have a clue. I have a Liberal state member, and have tried to explain climate issues (lack thereof) to him and he just gives a stupid quizzical look. I don’t believe he has the intellectual capacity to understand.

      https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/real-solutions-victorian-coalition-plans-to-legislate-50-per-cent-emissions-reduction-target-if-it-wins-state-election/news-story/23ad5dac9fca1b8f6532ea091f9b59da

      330

      • #
        Jack01

        Exactly, the Liberal party is totally gone now. It’s not any different to labor, and in cases like in WA – it was even as bad as the Greens, which is why they lost miserably there in the state election.

        In Australia we currently have three major parties – an extreme far-left Greens, a far-left Labor, and a center-left Liberal. The only parties right of centre are minor ones like ON and UAP.

        In NSW, over the past decade our education system has been heavily infiltrated with all the disgraceful gender theory stuff, our electricity grid has been ruined by the climate cult “moderate Liberals” and identity politics + wokeism has ramped up several orders of magnitude across all facets of society. And yet in that same time period of a decade we’ve had a liberal government allowing all this. This is the result of a left-wing government. And under Labor + Greens it would have been worse.

        350

      • #
        Zane

        Politics only attracts third-raters.

        170

        • #
          Kalm Keith

          I second that.

          70

        • #
          Dennis

          The quality has been declining since around the 1990s, meaning quality of candidates, and too many or most lacking world experience, too often graduates who fund employment as union or political party staffers and seeking to become career politicians.

          And more recently the group of new MPs who in years past would have been the typical “doctor’s wives” interviewed at an elite tennis club in the Sydney Eastern Suburbs during an election campaign, all very well off women, and most stated they intended to vote for the Greens to protect the environment for their children.

          One of the latest pale green Independent party masquerading as not associates but supported by Climate200 and GetUp was asked this past week where the revenue to replace coal and others she/they want closed down and she replied that a business super profits tax was the solution.

          Poor fella our country.

          121

        • #
          another ian

          Baxter Black – “First rate management employs first rate help. Second rate management employs third rate help”.

          Now work that down to your starting point and be really horrified

          40

  • #
    David Maddison

    buried in the fine print that apparently almost no one in Parliament even knew about.

    No surprise.

    A vast majority of politicians never bother to read the legislation they are voting upon.

    Furthermore, many would not understand it if they did.

    301

  • #
    Penguinite

    I’m sad to say that this rot started with John Howard’s capitulation to Greenness with his REM pitch. It also saw his own downfall!

    282

    • #
      Murray Shaw

      Led by his Environment Minister. Malcolm Turnbull.
      Nuff said!

      271

    • #
      David Maddison

      History will judge pretend conservative Howard very poorly for a variety of reasons. He also presided over giving away much of Australia’s gas supply to the Chicomms on a bizarre 30 year contract with no provision for inflation or market prices and at world’s cheapest prices. (Link below.)

      As a technologically illiterate politician he also made a major engineering error when he allowed non-dispatchable generators to connect to the grid. That’s the specific point when the rot really started.

      That is why politicians shouldn’t be allowed to make engineering decisions.

      https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/how-australia-blew-its-future-gas-supplies-20170928-gyqg0f.html

      320

      • #

        “That is why politicians shouldn’t be allowed to make engineering decisions.”

        LOL. That should read as – “That is why ‘Pollies’ shouldn’t be allowed to make ANY decisions”.

        220

  • #
    Doctor T

    Can anyone explain to me why, using the AEMO widget, spot electricity prices across all states have been significantly lower over the past couple of weeks?
    There doesn’t seem to be any change in demand or power mix.
    Is Albo actually a performer of miracles?

    90

    • #
      Eng_Ian

      Over the last couple of weeks some of the coal generators that were out for maintenance came back on line.

      Since coal is generally the cheapest, bulk generator, it lowers the need for purchasing power from dearer units. More coal = lower prices.

      For a simple analogy, imagine a town with one cheap supermarket, one mid priced grocer and one specialty store selling really expensive, environmentally friendly, fully hand grown produce. If the community values their money, then the people will buy their goods from the cheapest first. And, when it gets hot every household wants a salad and wants to buy two lettuces. The crowd cleans out the $5 ones at the cheap supermarket, then they clean out the $10 units at the grocer’s and the last in line have to go to the enviro shop and really get fleeced by the $20 produce. Since this only happens on hot days, the people were happy. Then a new green council get elected and their first laws involve the closing down of the cheap supermarket. Now, even on cooler days, everyone has to pay more, the cheap units are no longer available. Strangely, the candidates for the council said they would lower the average price of lettuces before the last election.

      Note, in the above example, I simplified the billing, in our reality, everyone without a long term contract for supply pays the price of the dearest lettuce that had to be purchased to meet demand, ie everyone who wanted a lettuce has to pay $20. Wouldn’t it be bad if there were a million $5 units, a thousand $10 units and 1 $20 unit and everyone was forced to pay $20.

      There’s just not enough cheap lettuces any more.

      320

      • #
        Doctor T

        Thanks for that explanation Ian, and I love you lettuce analogy!

        80

        • #

          Eng_Ian is on the money. The only catch is that in the weird world of electricity all lettuces sold in the same 5 minutes have the same price — which is whatever the most expensive lettuce sold is. So as long as we have enough coal to supply all or most of the grid in that five minute period it can “set” the price. If we lose just one generator (when we have no spare capacity) then the next fuel type sets the price. That’s why the system as is is running on the verge of a phase change. We lose a few coal units and suddenly the price leaps.

          It also gives all the players an interest in getting rid of the cheapest bidding fuel source.

          210

  • #
    Geoffrey Williams

    Yes indeed ‘climate action’ is an oxymoron . .

    140

  • #
    David Maddison

    Magical pagan symbols and messages

    The Left are full of pagan and pagan-like beliefs.

    E.g.

    Belief in Gaia the earth goddess.
    Belief in Marxism as a pseudo-religion
    Belief in secular humanism as a pseudo-religion.
    Belief in post-modernism as a psudo-religion.

    All a substitute for traditional Judeo-Christian religion of the West.

    151

    • #
      Sean

      “Passing this legislation sends a great message to the people of Australia that we are taking real action on climate change.”

      Seeing that, I’m reminded of a thought that struck me when I read about one of the recent mass shootings here in the US and the immediate rabid calls for legislation banning all sorts of firearms — “If passing legislation was all it takes to stop shootings, then why don’t they do something like pass a law making it illegal to shoot people? Oh, wait…”

      30

  • #
    Neville

    I know Labor, Greens, Teals etc don’t care about the DATA but here’s another very simple reminder. The increase in co2 level from 1800 to 1988 was about 70 ppm after 188 years. Or 280 ppm to 350 ppm.

    And since 1988 the increase in co2 level has also been another 70 ppm after JUST 34 years. That’s 350 ppm in 1988 to the 2022 level of 420 ppm.

    And since 1988 there has been no increase in co2 emissions from the OECD countries and soaring co2 emissions from the non OECD countries over the last 34 years. So how are we Aussies TAKING ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

    Of course Aussies co2 emissions are just 1.1% of global emissions and even our chief Scientist Dr Finkel admitted we couldn’t make a difference to the climate, even if we stopped all of our co2 emissions today. When will our clueless Labor , Greens, Teals pollies etc admit they are wrong and then start to follow the data and not their stupid fairy tales and fantasies?

    260

    • #
      David Maddison

      Also, isn’t one of the actual reasons for naturally increasing CO2 the huge thermal lag in the oceans of about 800-1000 years now responding to the heating of the Medieval Climate Optimum (which has now been written out of the climate record) and releasing CO2?

      (Most climate “scientists” these days seem to be unaware that CO2 is more soluble in cold water than warmer water. And we shouldn’t be calling them “scientists” either!)

      250

      • #
        TdeF

        And everyone has to admit oxygen enters the water easily. Ask any fish.

        But CO2 is 30x as soluble as O2. It’s hard to deny that CO2 cycles 30x faster than O2, but they do.

        I do not think it is ‘thermal lag’ but ocean currents. The ocean is on average 3.4km thick but water is a lot heavier than air and has many times the specific heat, the ability to absorb heat. The great current of the world control the world’s climates and these currents are many and varied and three dimensionsal.

        So the PDO, AMO, Indian Dipole, Humboldt, Gulf Stream to name a few are the great conveyor belts of massive heat, 1400x as much as is in the atmosphere. And while the infallible computer models map the air, they ignore the greatest source of heat on the planet, heat so great the ocean does not change temperature much at all and not below the surface.

        The temperatures of the world over the last few hundred years are fully explicably from the PDO/AMO and the De Vries cycle of the sun.
        There is no mystery to any of this. CO2 has nothing to do with it.

        160

    • #
      John in Oz

      to the CSIRO, the Southern Hemisphere in general and Australia in particular are carbo (dioxide) sinks already.

      Adding more ruinables may make us more of a sink while sinking the country further into energy poverty

      171

      • #
        John in Oz

        Thick fingers on this cold, overcast, rainy SA morning where my solar panels are not adding much to ruinable power generation.

        The above should have been:

        According to the CSIRO, the Southern Hemisphere in general and Australia in particular are carbo (dioxide) sinks already.

        Adding more ruinables may make us more of a sink while sinking the country further into energy poverty

        110

    • #
      Graeme M

      One oddity of the excited clamour over Labor’s 43% reduction is that compared to the likely 30-35% reduction under the LNP, the overall result is a reduction of global emissions of 0.2% or so by 2030 under Labor than under the LNP. Hardly the saving of humanity, yet that’s how the media seems to be selling this climate change bill.

      90

      • #
        yarpos

        Real outcomes are not the game. We must be seen to be “doing something” If it can be wrapped up in a bow, given a brand name and the lies promises are a little grander than the last set then its excitement time in the MSM. Soooooo much press release material to cut and paste and certainly no time to think anything through and formulate a few basic questions.

        30

    • #
      Philip

      They simply think everyone must do their bit. They don’t care about figures of 1.1 percent. They could be a small remote village and they would try and “do their bit”. They don’t use logic and reason. To them we are the worst of them all because we export coal. Non OECD countries get a free ride because they are less fortunate than us and not white either. Logic and reason not required, pure emotion.

      70

  • #
  • #
    RickWill

    It already appears the 43% target will be a breeze. I am yet to discuss this topic with anyone who is not making strides to reduce their energy use. Energy is simply too expensive for most.

    I have noticed that restaurants in southern Australia are using much less heating or none at all. Staff and patrons are wearing gear that used to be commonly seen on snow slopes. Now it seems everyone walks around in puffer jackets and they remain on when seated.

    Supermarkets are saving energy by not heating stores. That means their freezers need less energy. Lights are often down to about 30% of their installed lighting.

    Who can afford a road trip?

    Australians are rapidly heading for the life that the Greens envisaged.

    210

    • #
      yarpos

      If the ACT can claim 100% “renewable” the a 43% target should be simple and mostly more paper shuffling BS.

      Road trips are OK with right vehicle, we just did a lap to Sydney and back and there seemed to be the usual amount of traffic on the Hume and bustle in the roadside stops. Even spotted one EV cruising at 90kmh in the left lane. Far to say we leave the V8 at home now and take the modern petrol sipper.

      50

      • #
        Dennis

        EV preferred highway cruising speed from my observations is 80 to 90 kmh and obviously to conserve energy usage.

        I understand that the occasional EV in the left lane annoys heavy transport drivers who try to maintain schedule and at the legal 100 kmh.

        50

        • #
          Philip

          I was one of those annoying drivers in the left lane , but in a diesel not an EV. I was commuting 170 km per day, and when fuel went up I found that if I drove at 83 km/hr my cost remained at the old fuel price. My fuel economy went from 11.3 L/km to 14.5 L/km.

          I am however a good driver and would speed up as trucks approached so they didn’t have to slow at all. If you dont do that it is extremely dangerous to travel at slow speed. I’m sure the EV world has not considered this.

          10

          • #
            PeterPetrum

            Phillip, I am puzzled by your fuel/mileage rates.

            My diesel Range Rover Evoque does, on average, about 8L/100km. Drifting downhill from 3,500ft to the Sydney plains I get about 4L/100km. Unfortunately, Land Rover is no longer making diesel Evoques and my next car will be petrol driven. The sales man asked if I was interested in a (very expensive) EV. One look at my face stopped that conversation in its tracks!

            20

    • #
      David Maddison

      Apart from restaurants and other public venues keeping the heat down, I find it tragic that many people are cold and miserable in their own homes because they can’t afford heat. It is especially bad with children doing homework as it is hard to do when you are cold and miserable. I see a lot of this sort of thing as I volunteer to help various families in need.

      110

  • #
    Neville

    Dr James Hansen started then led the global warming scare since 1988 until his retirement from NASA GISS in 2014.
    He was also Al Gores’ climate expert for his stupid Sci-Fi movie AI Truth etc.
    Since his retirement he’s joined with Bill McKibben’s 350.ORG to assure us that a 350 ppm level of co2 should be our target and then everything would be just fine.
    So if we reduce co2 from 0.0420% of our air to 0.0350% that co2 difference of 0.070% somehow creates a new SAFE level?
    But does anyone really THINK this makes any sense?

    210

    • #
      Mike Jonas

      I hear all these blithering idiots blathering on about emissions when there is no-one listening who can do anything about it. How brain-dead do you have to be in order not to inderstand that you HAVE to talk to the Chinese.

      OK, so there are other words for it, but at least ‘blithering idiots’ is polite and respectful (relatively speaking).

      30

    • #
      Neville

      I’m sorry but I’ve made a mistake above. Here’s what I wrote….

      “So if we reduce co2 from 0.0420% of our air to 0.0350% that co2 difference of 0.070% somehow creates a new SAFE level?
      But does anyone really THINK this makes any sense?”
      But 0.035% subtracted from 0.0420% is 0.007% and definitely NOT 0.07%. Or 420 ppm minus 350 ppm= 70 ppm.
      So one more decimal point is correct. I will have to do better.

      20

  • #
    another ian

    Another to add to their “Unthought About” list?

    “Worrying Finding in California’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Climate Initiative Reveals Problem with Using Forests to Offset CO2 Emissions”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/08/05/worrying-finding-in-californias-multi-billion-dollar-climate-initiative-reveals-problem-with-using-forests-to-offset-co2-emissions/

    50

  • #
    TdeF

    If only the opposition would wake up and do what Tony Abbott did, call it crap.

    Instead we had Teal Malcolm Turnbull and his extreme Green agenda doing more damage than today’s Labour.

    And he held out for Morrison who did the same thing. At every level, the insanity of an anti coal, anti gas, anti petrol anti diesel agenda is past hypocritical. It is past insane.

    But it will all come crashing down everywhere in the Northern winter which will be far colder than ever because Global Warming has stopped and temperatures are plummeting. Germany is stockpiling. China is stockpiling. But only in Australia do we have governments which are not only racing to shut down coal power stations but actively destroying and demolishing them. No dams, no power stations. We are sitting ducks.

    The truth is that an infinite number of windmills and solar panels does not provide electricity at night in a wind drought, summer or winter.

    The chickens will come home to roost this summer in Australia and the winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

    The richest 60% of humanity will freeze to death to prevent Global Warming. But it gets worse as the WEF is trying to shut down farmers for producing too much food with fertilizer, just like Sri Lanka.

    170

  • #
    David Maddison

    In the race to the bottom, of the Anglo-heritage democracies I always thought Once Great Britain would be first to fall.

    But I think Australia now is a clear winner in the race to grid and economic collapse.

    Australia will even beat NZ, led by a full-on Marxist, but they already have plenty of hydro electricity power by virtue of geographical accident. For now, hydro is deemed semi-acceptable by the Left except in Kaliforniastan where they are dismantling it.

    However, NZ is more advanced in their war against agriculture than Australia is, but Australia will soon catch up.

    171

  • #
    Phillip Sweeney

    More CO2 REDUCES global warming!

    Yes – the latest reaerch not funded by the corrupt socialist United Nations confirms

    (i) Higher CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere has lead to a “Greening of the Planet”

    (ii) Increase vegitation promotes more transpiration from plants and this increased cloud formation

    (iii) Increased cloud formation reduces heating from solar cycles which heat and cool the planet.

    Therefore global warming due to solar activity has been moderated by MORE CO2

    When will the idiots in charge of the Canberra asylum wake up to the fact they will destroy the Australian economy to ACCELRATE global warming

    181

  • #
    David Maddison

    Notice how most of the more Leftist posters of this blog rarely comment at night or on weekends?

    It’s as though they only post when they are at work in their highly-overpaid public “service” positions, LoL.

    211

  • #
    Neville

    Another interesting discussion from Anthony Watts etc about climate and weather and how the MSM love to use lies or omission or BS or whatever to create a fairy tale coverage for that day or week or month etc.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/08/05/live-at-noon-today-wheres-all-the-extreme-weather/

    60

  • #
    Geoffrey Williams

    ‘Albernese’s climate politics power play leaves the nation in the dark.’
    We may as well be living in a dictatership, in fact we are . .

    130

    • #
      David Maddison

      We may as well be living in a dictatership, in fact we are . .

      I think the Covid lockups and related dictatorial policies proved that.

      131

  • #
    Ronin

    Has anyone watched question time in the house of reps, the libs seem beaten, like a flogged dog, all they can come up with is ‘points of order’, I thought Dutton would start savaging the idiots straight up, but no.
    Forget about nukes for the time being, we can’t afford them, concentrate on the energy crisis in Europe and the one surely coming here under Anals idiot policies.

    91

  • #
    David Maddison

    Even when people are freezing in the dark (which they are now) and Australia suffers total economic collapse, the Left will continue to shout:

    WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH PANELS, WINDMILLS OR BIG BATTERIES.

    No amount of logic, reason or facts can change their mind because they subscribe to post-modernism, i.e. there is no such thing as objective reality.

    120

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      ” they subscribe to post-modernism “?

      Almost certainly it’s something more tangible that they subscribe to.

      There’s a money/gold/silver flow there somewhere to “influence” the top dogs.

      Look at the current post on what John Howard did to the Australian gas stocks and the thirty year contract; then ask Why?

      There’s Money in them thar Renewables, and it’s not all going to China.

      80

      • #
        David Maddison

        Yes, agreed KK.

        Let’s then say it’s the “useful idiots” of the Left that subscribe to post-modernism. The Elites who they propagandise for know exactly what they are doing and are in it for the money, power and control. An idea I have often stated.

        70

  • #
    Ronin

    “We can’t have farmers earning too many carbon credits can we?”

    It seems farmers can now make a nice living hosting windmills on their land and ‘carbon farming’ where they are paid to ‘not farm’, thus increasing costs to the consumer.

    130

  • #
    Ronin

    Why doesn’t Dutton quote our Chief Scientist, who when asked , how will Australias’ contribution matter, he said very, very little.

    120

  • #
    another ian

    “U.S.-China diplomatic tension casts doubt over global climate progress”

    https://globalnews.ca/news/9040995/china-united-states-climate-change/

    Via SDA

    Remember what Napoleon was supposed to have said about such situations

    40

    • #
      Ronin

      Remember what Napoleon was supposed to have said about such situations.
      Was it he who said, never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

      21

  • #
    Ronin

    The ‘Climatanic’, is it a square rigger, with no modern features like an auxilliary engine, and a rock for an anchor. LOL

    60

  • #
    Zane

    Do not expect Chump Change Chalmers to pull any sort of magic rabbit out of a hat and save the Australian economy. Chalmers continues a long and proud tradition of federal Treasurers with absolutely zero credentials in finance, economics, or business. Chump Change has an Arts degree and a PhD in political science gained by writing a thesis on the genius of Paul Keating.

    It is doubtful he could balance the books of a corner cafe.

    Luckily for Chalmers export prices are high and this will save Australia’s bacon. For how much longer, who knows.

    70

    • #
      Ronin

      Wasn’t CCC an understudy of Wayne (worlds best treasurer) Swan, the treasurer who promised 5 surpluses and delivered none.

      20

  • #
    Dennis

    Wow!

    A huge 43 per cent of Australia’s 1 per cent of global emissions from human activities.

    40

    • #
      Ronin

      When the numbers are that low, it’s nothing more than flag waving, tokenism, symbolism, wokism, virtue signaling, take your pick.
      It’s also about having something for ‘show and tell’ on the world stage.

      80

    • #
      yarpos

      all in an environment that is already a nett CO2 sink

      and of course you have to believe it matters anyway

      20

  • #
    Dennis

    After the end of 2015 IPCC Paris Conference the Turnbull Government of Australia sent a Minister to the UN in New York and signed the Paris Agreement emissions target, and in November he returned to New York and ratified the Paris Agreement with no need to do so, most member nations simply agreed to the zero penalties target nation by nation.

    So why legislation now to make the new target law?

    When the truth is revealed voters who trusted Labor when they claimed jobs in coal mining and others were secure, and that now the legislation has handed the activists another weapon to use in appeal courts to delay or stop new mining and other projects, I believe the backlash will be huge, the anger widespread.

    And also this week Labor has blocked a new coal mine planned by Clive Palmer’s business group, Greens Leader Bandt was reported to have commented one down and (I forget the number) many to go.

    60

    • #
      Ronin

      ” When the truth is revealed voters who trusted Labor when they claimed jobs in coal mining and others were secure, and that now the legislation has handed the activists another weapon to use in appeal courts to delay or stop new mining and other projects, I believe the backlash will be huge, the anger widespread.”

      This the sort of thing Dutton has handed to him on a plate, they need to go hard on this, slam the maggots at every turn.

      70

  • #
    Dennis

    Prime Minister Albanese: China does not have any commitment to an emissions reduction target until maybe after 2030, yet to be established, but has continued to build more coal fired power stations and others and increase emissions every year by more than Australia’s total one per cent of global emissions, and now ….

    https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3187927/china-suspends-climate-change-cooperation-us-and-sanctions

    50

    • #
      David Maddison

      And the only reason the Chicomms have a pretend emissions target they might think about in 2030 is because they know the West will have self-destructed by then and they will be running, and enslaving, the world.

      50

  • #
    sectokia

    Labor policy papers say that reaching 43% will reduce power prices by 18% and create three hundred thousand jobs.

    What’s more is… they believe it. They are going to use the above models to justify huge amounts of market manipulation and government spending.

    20

  • #
    Robber

    Apparently Labor’s 2030 target to save the planet includes 82% of electricity being supplied by “renewables”. The 43% target applies to all emissions, including industry, transport, manufacturing etc.
    How is that going to work?
    Currently, on average across the AEMO grid, solar provides 13.5%, wind 12%, and hydro 8%, with coal 59.6% and gas 6.9%.
    By 2030, to reach 82% renewables, will the generation mix look like this?
    Solar 36%, wind 36%, hydro 10%, with coal 11%, gas 7%.
    Solar only operates at about 25% capacity factor (or less), so during the day solar would generate 144% of demand, requiring massive storage to reduce output to the grid to say 50% of demand. The balance of daylight generation would be wind 36%, hydro 5%, leaving just 9% for coal and gas.
    Is that a viable operation for any coal or gas generators?
    Now consider what happens when wind delivers 72% of demand (wind output varies from a capacity factor near zero to 60%, average 30%). At least half would have to go into storage, especially during daylight hours.
    On a still, cold night, it would seem that the majority of supply would have to come from massive batteries, unless there are still reliable coal and gas generators just ticking over on standby.
    It is not surprising that Albanese and Bowen have quickly backed away from their promise to cut our electricity bills by $275 by 2025, yet still they chant the mantra that “renewables” are cheaper.
    Now we must wait for Labor’s costed plan to deliver their targets.

    50

    • #
      David Maddison

      By 2030 we will have a dramatically reduced standard of living and electricity will be considered an expensive luxury, affordable only for night time lighting and 30 mins 600pm to 630pm government propaganda delivered on the compulsory Telescreen in every home plus supplemental radio.

      Few will be able to afford hot water, refrigeration, heating or gas or electricity for cooking. People will learn to eat their insects and gruel raw or with minimal cooking (or prepare food only once per day).

      40

      • #
        Dennis

        We should consult migrants from disadvantaged countries on how to survive the new Labor-Green-Teal way of life for all but the elites.

        51

      • #
        Honk R Smith

        The Greens may misunderstand the ramifications of returning to a pre-Neolithic lifestyle.
        I don’t think we’ve ever found a cave painting of a salad.

        70

  • #
    Dennis

    Offshore wind turbine installations Albanese Labor is crowing about have been in planning for some time, in particular the Gippsland Victoria coastal installation planning and of course the primary responsibility for electricity supply and planning approval processing is State Government, no doubt offshore also involves Federal Government as compared to only the State onshore.

    And the project has been listed for a few years to date.

    The proposal is based on 1,300 MW but I cannot find reference to what that represents, Installed/Nameplate Capacity or Capacity Factor, the wording I have found is vague.

    Completion timing if started immediately is 2028.

    41

    • #
      Dennis

      Wind turbines contain and need replaced at intervals lubricating oil, all of the wind turbines in an installation site are of course filled with oil in the gearbox.

      Another example of why renewable energy is not as “green” as the Greens and supporters want people to believe.

      80

    • #
      Philip

      Who has the contract to harvest the seabird cull ?

      40

  • #
    another ian

    “Chinese Threat: Renounce Taiwan, or the Global Climate Gets It”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/08/05/china-threat-renounce-taiwan-or-the-global-climate-gets-it/

    11

  • #
    Philip

    The Lucky (but stupid) Country.

    11

    • #
      yarpos

      his “lucky” quote was really about stupidity and lack of competence in the leadership class, so more relevant than ever today

      10

  • #
    Honk R Smith

    One reason I read this blog is I’m fascinated by Australia.
    In my case, a bit like a cat chasing a moving reflection on a wall the it has no hope catching.

    It occurs to me the Oz is a little like Japan.
    A somewhat isolated island culture that has morphed into its’ own special kind of special.
    Maybe even developing your own form of political hara kiri.
    Of course we are committing slow, painful cultural suicide here in America too.
    Somebody, unseen, is waiting with a sword for the coup de grace after we bleed out.
    So it’s unwitting seppuku.

    41

    • #
      yarpos

      nah Japan is unique, we are derivative

      they are tidy and organised and even have trains that run on time, we are messy and shambolic

      Japan is more like an Asia based Switzerland

      We are more like Italy, generally sunny and things sorta work mostly and people dont care that much

      Your hara kiri point is well made though, we are certainly going down that road.

      10

  • #
    Philip

    What on earth was Clive playing at with that Al Gore stunt? I was in a time out from politics period and missed all that so I don’t understand. I had to read that paragraph in Jo’s blog a few times and am still confused. Why did he do that ?

    (I just watched sport for a few years to escape social politics and then the social politics came to sport. So I’m back.)

    51

  • #
    Philip

    Why do Liberals do this stupid stuff ? Are they strong armed into it behind the scenes or are they just a bit stupid too ? I’m so intrigued I’m considering joining my local National Party just to find out how stupid they are.

    61

  • #
    IainC

    Albo: Fantastic news, Comrades. The 43% off all emissions by 2030 legislation has just passed. Now, who’s got the plan on how to get there by 2030?
    Partyroom: (Cheering stops suddenly) Uh, sorry, PM, we thought you had all that under control.
    Albo: Certainly not, I’m just the figurehead making the announcements. Come on, somebody must have worked out the details in the last 5 years? Penny? Jimbo? Anyone?
    Partyroom: Gosh, this is a bit embarrassing. What if we give John Setka at the CFMMEU a call? He’s responsible for all our policy decisions…….Nope, he thought we were doing that bit. Now what?
    (Voice at the back): How about we talk to the Greens? They’re experts at this. They’re always on top of every detail on climate change.
    All: Ha ha ha ha…..Hey, who let Matt Kean in the room? (scuffling, door slam)
    Albo: Right, here’s what we do. We’ll just keep shoving wind and solar randomly into the grid until someone comes up with a plan. It’s what’s been happening for the last 10 years, so nobody will catch on. Agreed?
    Party room: Hear! Hear!

    70

    • #
      Serp

      Awful indeed the harm ignorance has unleashed; I’ll be over a hundred before Australia builds its next coal fired power station.

      10

  • #
    Kevin T Kilty

    Having brought in the hated ETS through the “conservative” Coalition, the conservatives could hardly campaign against “an ETS” they themselves had legislated, and presumably, neither could Clive.

    Yes, the conservative coalition may have brought this in themselves, but it does not follow that they cannot now campaign against it nor that this mistake can’t be rectified. It requires courage which is what is in short supply throughout the Western world. Just say that the balance of evidence now shows this to be a mistake, a grave mistake, and go from there — and best to come out of the mouth of someone who was directly involved in the origin of the fiasco. The best example to follow is Ronald Reagan who would go live on TV to explain an issue to the people directly thus short-circuiting the medias’ attempts to misdirect and undermine sensible policies. The best current example in the U.S. is Ron DeSantis, who appears to know how to handle the media.

    One can hope that people will eventually tire of the financial and life-style pain to demand change, but that is a faint hope. It appears people in the UK are tiring of energy poverty but blame “greedy energy companies”. In other words, the people are imbeciles when it comes to anything involving two links in a chain of logic. The politicians know this mental weakness and capitalize on it.

    40

  • #
    michael hart

    “They’ve lost industries, jobs and sovereign power as well as hot showers.”

    Try a cold shower in the UK climate,cobber. 🙂

    Cold showers and physical “abstinence” allegedly helped us build an Empire, but I’m not looking forward to their return this winter.

    20

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Australia is last rat to jump ON the burning Climatitanic ship . No thinking for the long term future here, just the short-term dumb reasoning that it’s better to jump onto something that’s burning and sinking and float for a bit longer than drown quickly.

    20

  • #
    Neville

    I’m sorry but I’ve made a mistake at 15 above. Here’s what I wrote….

    “So if we reduce co2 from 0.0420% of our air to 0.0350% that co2 difference of 0.070% somehow creates a new SAFE level?
    But does anyone really THINK this makes any sense?”
    But 0.035% subtracted from 0.0420% is 0.007% and definitely NOT 0.07%. Or 420 ppm minus 350 ppm= 70 ppm.
    So one more decimal point is correct. I will have to do better.

    10

  • #
    SimonB

    Remember when climate activists were pilloried for getting their media activist mates to publish a stupid quote somewhere in a dead spot of a hard copy ‘journal of revord’?
    Sure serial bankrupt, Bob Brown was elected to the Senate too many times, but now the Lower House seat of MELBOURNE has been retained by a Greens activist, who the mainstream trashmedia gleefully quote as mainstream news!
    Non birthing parent, Adam Bandt (whose name predictive text wants to rightly assist with as; A dam bandit) makes the 1970’s -80’s lunatic claims that the sitting government must provide a 43% reduction in plant food by 2030 or the planet will frizzle into a n uninhabitable calcified rock!
    In between he’s lecturing a former Labor PM for not stopping the lunatic leftwing groupthink AnAl government from ‘lurching to the right’!
    He’s doing this in all seriousness as a needed element to pass woke stupidity and industry killing climate activism masquerading as government mandate!
    This is happening in a world where political momentum has been wrested from critical thinkers by Klaus Schwabs Fourth Reich WEF as renewables investors are fuming their returns are behind projections and Marxists expected covid restrictions to have been translated into the destruction of the Wests middle class quicker with WEF scholarship graduates Rutte, Trudeau, Ardern and Macron setting precedents for each other to enact in their jurisdictions.
    Bandt might not be a WEF graduate, but as a useful idiot he is eroding the common sense of a country which is quickly being bogged down in the minutae of climate horsetrading, while seriously claiming that 70 years of hydro power in NSW and Tasmania is NOT renewable energy and therefore those customers must also pay punitive energy prices because the AEMO decides it!
    Wake up Australia, start demanding your politicians explain how carbon sequestration works, how plant food is bad for the environment, how solar and wind infrastructure is made with renewable energy, how base load of a functioning 21st century electronic society is maintained – BEFORE we add EV charging?
    Ask how A dam bandit can live in and represent an inner city electorate which produces no energy or food capable of sustaining even it’s own LGA, yet can lecture the country which DOES feed him and his voters AND get widespread trashmedia coverage?

    40

  • #
    Simon

    Wind and solar are the cheapest source of electricity generation and storage in Australia, even when considering additional integration costs arising due to the variable output of renewables, such as energy storage and transmission.
    Cost reductions for technologies not currently being widely deployed such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), nuclear Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), solar thermal, and ocean energy are lagging and would require stronger investment to realise their full potential.
    https://www.csiro.au/en/news/news-releases/2022/gencost-2022

    15

    • #
      RoscoKH

      Simon, we get it. CSIRO we get it!! When the wind blows and the sun is in the Goldilocks zone (you know, not too cold, not too hot) both those generation sources compete very well. But the greater majority of the time those conditions are not present, so coal gas, hydro etc have to do the back up. Hence, you then get to the logical progression – why the hell do we need the intermittents in the first place? Especially when our CO2 emissions hover now at about 1%of the world and overall our continent is a great big CO2 sink anyway. I have heard reported that the capacity factors for wind in that CSIRO Gencost report are also modelled way too high.

      31

    • #
      Zane

      Neither wind nor solar can store electricity. Are you an AI bot? If so, request a system update.

      41

    • #
      tonyb

      Simon

      Please clarify your storage remark.

      In the UK at present we have a drought. It would be made much worse if we relied totally on rain falling from the sky rather than previously having been stored in reservoirs. As the population has increased storage has not kept pace.

      To use a direct analogy we are using power straight out of the renewable sources and have nowhere to store the surplus for when it is needed. Obviously they must organise renewables storage differently in Oz.

      31

    • #

      Where oh where are the storage mechanisms for oh so intermittent wind and solar?
      A serf would like to to know? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????

      30

    • #
      Simon

      South Australia has a battery. So do many houses. Every EV in every garage is a battery storing off-peak energy. The capacity will continue to increase. Some pretty impressive new technologies coming onstream, e.g. cobalt free LiFePO4.

      14

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Boom, Phiiissss, cough cough.
        Completely safe.

        31

      • #
        tonyb

        Simon

        A lot of green expectations are predicated on hope and technologies coming to the rescue that haven’t been invented yet.

        Few new technologies either scale up or meet reasonable standards of cost efficiency. Even existing ones are fraught with problems as modern batteries have an unpleasant cocktail of environmentally ruinous and increasingly scarce rare earths, often owned by hostile countries.

        I am intrigued as to how batteries can not only store power for times of shortage such as nights and cloudy /windless days but also charge up EV batteries, power heat pumps and still provide enough for constant daily household and industrial use.

        This SA battery. Is it the Tesla one or does it provide sufficient storage to last for a few days? Oz has different circumstances of course and obviously more sunshine hours.

        The larger economies/larger populations are often in less sunny climes. For example in the UK/Western Europe/North America lack of sun and wind can last for up to 10 days at a time, a pattern repeated several times, especially in our winter.

        Its horses for renewable courses and what works for you might not work for us but I do need convincing on your battery storage capabilities.

        41

        • #
          Ronin

          Don’t forget these batteries have to be CHARGED, where is the power coming for that, how is the power going to feed the mains AND charge the batteries,

          10

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Simon:
        It would cost Australia a MINIMUM of $3.5 TRILLION for battery storage for 100% renewables. That doesn’t allow for the massive price rises in the mining boom to extract all the necessary minerals.

        10

        • #
          ozfred

          That assumes for the first three or four years China would be willing to sell that quantity of batteries.
          And in the meanwhile Australia can figure out how to manufacture large batteries locally?

          10

      • #
        Andrew Wilkins

        You get in your expensive EV in the morning, ready to virtue signal all the way to work. Wait a minute! The utility company have drained your battery to back up their useless renewables.
        Yeah, that’ll work Simon. Give your head a wobble champ.

        30

        • #
          SimonB

          Plus blackouts, forcing rationing when everyone comes home from work and plugs into their car park in the multilevel underground structure under their highrise!
          Have to ensure there’s enough power ready for the floodlights at their inner city stadium, theatre, club, casino……
          Let’s go fully EV and have people in the country plan their city medical trips around how many charging stops they have to make, because the computer modelled state of the planet is more important than your twice weekly cancer treatment!
          Until of course, it’s them! Sadly we’re in a groupthink era where critical thinking isn’t taught in school, propaganda is.

          30

    • #
      Ronin

      S&W look ok while there is coal to back it up, but take that away, pfffft.

      20

    • #
      SimonB

      Comedy gold there, namesake! It truly is cheaper to have blackouts and not provide baseload.
      Could you find me ‘modelling’ on how you produce the raw materials for the actual solar and wind infrastructure and the lifespan of those items?
      While you’re there, actual proof on the lifespan of those items to date, the number of square km’s of renewables required to provide baseload power for a city of 5 million?
      Here’s a thought too, while you’re at it, could you tap into your green database and let me know of the projections on the number of square kilometres required to feed the explosion in cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens……which no doubt the leftwing groupthink organizations will mandate a nett zero consumption by 2040 or so? That is when the world keeps spinning and the Schwab Fourth Reich also spins the current temps and additional rain producing record crop growth and therefore associated insects!
      While you’re researching look up the FACT that the Barrier Reef is the healthiest it’s been in 3 decades. No surprise really, as the shock and awe photos showed the storm damaged top of a microscopic section of the largest living organism on the planet!
      Reckon the rest of the planet will survive too, not sure about about the useful idiots and rusted on zealots of the – what is it now? – 4th,5th climate disaster in 50 years where the planet is already supposed to have blown up a dozen times?
      Looking forward to checking your honework!

      30

  • #
    T Man

    The only thing we’re going to transition to is poverty.

    71

    • #
      tonyb

      T Man

      That sounds a great rallying call

      What do we want?
      POVERTY

      What do we want?
      POVERTY
      When do we want it?
      NOW!

      So at the next XR demo we need someone to start the chant. Any offers?

      51

  • #
    Daffy

    Here we go with more political mendacity; propaganda words at work. Safeguard mechanism? No, it’s destruction mechanism. ‘Safeguard’ sounds so nice, but it safeguards no one or nothing.

    30