Antinuclear

   The prime minister, Scott Morrison, surrounded by advisers out of the fossil fuel industry, is stuck in a time warp.

His claim that “there is no credible energy transition plan, for an economy like Australia in particular, that does not involve the greater use of gas as an important transition fuel” is demonstrably wrong. There are many.

A decade ago solar and wind were expensive, gas was cheap, batteries had no conceivable role in a power grid and pumped hydro storage was a forgotten technology. Conventional wisdom held that gas was a “transition fuel” – that since gas generation has half the emissions of coal power (if we foolishly turn a blind eye to emissions caused when extracting gas), we could reduce emissions by switching out coal power stations for gas turbines.

Helped strongly by wind and solar, that’s exactly what has happened in the UK and US, where gas is cheap, thanks to favourable gas-field geology. Different geology and an unfortunate decision to deeply link our domestic gas market to Asia have condemned Australia – or at least the east coast, which doesn’t reserve gas for local use – to high gas prices.

The energy transition story is playing out quite differently in Australia. Over the last decade renewables tripled from 8% to 23% in the National Electricity Market and 11 coal power stations shut down. We didn’t burn more gas, we just burnt it more strategically.[good graph on original]

There’s no doubt that gas has played a very important role in keeping the lights on. Morrison claims we need a lot more of it to continue the energy transition already in play. The experts disagree.

A clutch of deep decarbonisation studies going back a decade – from Beyond Zero Emissions, the Australian Energy Market Operator, ClimateWorks, ANU, UNSW, Institute for Sustainable Futures, Stanford University, CSIRO and the Energy Networks Association among others – have shown a future where Australia burns far less fossil gas (and coal), the lights stay on and electricity is affordable. Trilemma solved! ………..

The latest gas forecasts – not yet updated for the ISP – show no increase in industrial, commercial and residential demand. Further, many energy experts are banking on reduced gas demand as users switch from gas heating to heat pumps and induction cooking. Increasingly Australians are building houses without gas connections.

So, Scott Morrison, let’s come clean and let the public know that there’s no domestic case for increasing gas extraction. Given that gas extraction threatens landscapes and has a major problem with emissions, it’s better we leave it in the ground. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/01/scott-morrison-is-stuck-in-a-time-warp-more-gas-is-not-the-answer