Antinuclear

Frydenberg said this to the party room and then repeated it when addressing an energy conference in Melbourne a week later. He made clear it was not about energy security, but “levelling the playing field” between lower cost renewable and expensive and polluting coal.

It’s a classic case of overkill – of politics over policy, and of ideology over technology.

It is true that the Far Right in Australia have not had the same powers as their colleagues now have in the US, where climate science, environmental protections, renewable policies, and emission controls are being systematically trashed and dismantled by the Trump administration.

But they have given it a good shot. While in power, the Abbott government abolished the carbon price, slashed the renewable energy target and other institutions. Since losing power, they have still succeeded in freezing their policy, or politics, in time.

And so too have been the efforts of federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg to placate the Far Right by suggesting that each individual new wind and solar farm should carry an equal amount of storage for its rated capacity – megawatt-hour per megawatt – effectively trying to turn the new technology into the same monoliths that exist now in the current energy market model which is clearly past its use by date. Frydenberg said this to the party room and then repeated it when addressing an energy conference in Melbourne a week later. He made clear it was not about energy security, but “levelling the playing field” between lower cost renewable and expensive and polluting coal. It’s a classic case of overkill – of politics over policy, and of ideology over technology. It is true that the Far Right in Australia have not had the same powers as their colleagues now have in the US, where climate science, environmental protections, renewable policies, and emission controls are being systematically trashed and dismantled by the Trump administration. But they have given it a good shot. While in power, the Abbott government abolished the carbon price, slashed the renewable energy target and other institutions. Since losing power, they have still succeeded in freezing their policy, or politics, in time.

The whole debate around the potentially ground-breaking Finkel Review boiled down to whether it was good for coal generators or not.

The climate science was discarded, and then the fossil fuel industry and the conservatives began to question the very idea that wind and solar were cheaper than new coal. Fake news made front page headlines in the Murdoch media as the incumbents fought back.

Harwin’s speech puts a nonsense to this, and highlights the fact that to be a member of a conservative government does not necessarily equate to the need to deny basic facts.

It is worth repeating Harwin’s major themes, because like the $565 million investment in Nectar Farms, the creation of 1,300 jobs and the shift of one of Australia’s biggest vegetable growing operations to 100 per cent renewables, it did not get a single mention in the mainstream media.

It seems there are some things MsM doesn’t want you to know. (Although we should belatedly note that the Guardian did finally write a story on the Harwin speech on Tuesday, nearly a week after it was delivered).

The whole debate around the potentially ground-breaking Finkel Review boiled down to whether it was good for coal generators or not. The climate science was discarded, and then the fossil fuel industry and the conservatives began to question the very idea that wind and solar were cheaper than new coal. Fake news made front page headlines in the Murdoch media as the incumbents fought back. Harwin’s speech puts a nonsense to this, and highlights the fact that to be a member of a conservative government does not necessarily equate to the need to deny basic facts. It is worth repeating Harwin’s major themes, because like the $565 million investment in Nectar Farms, the creation of 1,300 jobs and the shift of one of Australia’s biggest vegetable growing operations to 100 per cent renewables, it did not get a single mention in the mainstream media. It seems there are some things MsM doesn’t want you to know. (Although we should belatedly note that the Guardian did finally write a story on the Harwin speech on Tuesday, nearly a week after it was delivered).

The major themes of the speech were in direct opposition to the positions and beliefs held by the Far Right. Continue reading →