NEW COLUMN: HARD-HITTING ALAN JONES
But PM is spooked by the zealots
IT would be laughable if it weren’t so serious to see, yet again, the Federal government and the Albanese Opposition fighting one another for a spot on the energy roundabout.
Labor, of course, have an excuse, wedded as they seem to be, to outdated and irrelevant ideology, whether it be on climate change or coal.
The Liberal Party don’t have such an excuse.
Remember, as I have said many times, anyone who thinks Anthony Albanese is nuts with his net zero carbon dioxide emissions scheme, should be aware that the Liberal Party is riddled with people who agree with him.
The Prime Minister commanded a headline only days ago, “Net zero emissions by 2050 achievable”; and Gladys Berejiklian said it would be her “dream” to reach zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
To voting Australians, I suspect it would be closer to a nightmare, with its consequence on jobs, industry and in particular, manufacturing.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, how former Prime Minister John Howard is celebrated as an exalted figure within the ranks of the Liberal hierarchy, but only when it suits.
John Howard said in an interview with me on November 15, 2006, “If we close down every power station in Australia tomorrow, it would take China nine months of emissions to cancel that out. That is why you can’t seriously address this problem on a global scale, unless you have China, India and the US working together, which is 50 per cent of the world’s population.”
He made a further crucial point, 14 years ago: “Australians don’t want us to unfairly disadvantage our coal industries; and they certainly don’t want to see this country sign an international energy agreement that burdens us with penalties and lets other countries get away scot-free.”
I would have thought, 14 years on, that is not a bad text for the nation, unless, of course, we are ideologically hide bound, which I suspect, too many politicians are.
Earlier this year, Scott Morrison made it quite clear that he would back any jobs for the new coal fired power station at Collinsville in Central Queensland.
He said, very cleverly: “I know where Collinsville is. Labor might not. I know where the jobs are in Collinsville, our government believes in jobs, we believe in jobs in North Queensland.”
Singing off Matt Canavan’s song sheet, Scott Morrison said: “We believe in ensuring that manufacturing continues to be able to get access to the reliable power it needs to ensure that they can support jobs … into the future.”
That’s fine in terms of rhetoric; the reality is different.
The only three things an energy policy should offer is that the energy be available, reliable and affordable.
Renewable energy is none of those three.
No-one is denying we need a new major base-load power station; quite frankly, we need six.
But why on earth would you abandon our abundant supply of coal and uranium?
What is worse, why would you export coal and uranium so that other countries can have cheap energy while we fiddle around with misplaced ideology. When people now are asked in Australia about their attitude to climate change and associated issues, such as drought, bushfires, farming and cost of living, climate change is never rated among the most important policy issues.
It’s the same across the world.
PEW research recently asked Americans to rate climate change among other issues, such as the strength of the economy, health care costs, education, terrorism – dealing with climate change came last out of 18 in 2018 and it was 17th out of 18 in 2019.
What people want is low cost reliable energy. Enter Scott Morrison. But the Prime Minister is spooked by the Left; spooked by climate change renewable energy zealots and the anticoal fired power minority.
If coal will remain a critical energy source, according to the PM, why on earth would you talk about building a gas fired power station in the middle of the Hunter Valley, the world’s best thermal coal base?
And, yes, gas is a fossil fuel. As Matt Canavan has pointed out, the man whom the Morrison government don’t want on the front bench, 90 per cent of our coal resources are mined for less than $1.75 a gigajoule.
Almost all our gas resources cost more than $6 per gigajoule to extract, three times more expensive than coal.
And we have a lot more coal than gas.
The maths will tell you that to make gas competitive, you need a gas price of about $3 a gigajoule.
And that is well below the cost of production.
A GUTSY LEADER WOULD UNAPOLOGETICALLY TAKE THIS ISSUE TO THE ELECTORATE. IF YOU DON’T WANT COAL FIRED POWER, SACK ME.
It is insanity. Matt Canavan has made the further point that because of the geological nature of our gas fields, gas extraction is much more expensive than that of coal.
But coal won’t get a guernsey because the government is terrified of the Greens.
We have the fourth highest electricity prices in the world.
And yet, we are one of the world’s richest countries in terms of energy resources.
How on earth, in this environment, can we turn our backs on coal fired power?
A gutsy leader would unapologetically take this issue to the electorate.
If you don’t want coal fired power, sack me.
If you don’t want cheap electricity, sack me.
I will tell you which way the public would vote.
Yet Governments surrender to a minority who want to replace all of this with unaffordable renewable energy, which will never meet our energy needs.
Which brings us, of course, to the gigantic hoax, the notion that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and everything with a sniff of carbon dioxide must be disowned and that means fossil fuels.
Just as no one can explain, in the current environment, how we have a “pandemic” when 99 per cent of all cases, according to the World Health Organisation, are mild, how on Earth can carbon dioxide, which is 0.04 per cent of the atmosphere, worldwide, be the bogey man that the alarmists seek to make it.
Why are we not told that even the International Energy Agency predicts that the share of fossil fuels will decline only from 81 per cent today, to 74 per cent by 2040.
And when we talk fossil fuels, we mean petroleum, coal and natural gas.
But they produce carbon dioxide when they are burnt; and worldwide it is 0.04 per cent of the atmosphere.
Am I the only one who is shaking my head?
We are writing a national economic suicide note.
Prime Minister, stop worrying about minorities and misplaced ideology.
The source of our former wealth is here in front of us.
Use it and stop pandering to ideological misfits.
Watch Alan Jones each Thursday at 8pm on Sky News.