Energy fix won’t be cheap
Wherever you look in this campaign you see a part or another that promises something to do with energy. The work promises to extend his $ 75 at the discount quarter on electric bills For another six months until the end of this year.
The coalition promises to cut the excise petrol and diesel immediately 25 ° C per liter For a year. And it is promising to reduce the wholesale price of the gas by forcing gas manufacturers to make it more available for local users rather than expanding so much at high prices. (Gas is the most expensive fuel used to produce electricity, then reducing the local price I wanted Make power a little cheaper.)
Dutton’s plan provides that seven vast scale nuclear reactors are built by the government, owned by the government, financed by the government and managed by the government.Credit: Monique Westermann
This has made very unhappy gas manufacturers. And Peter Dutton did not provide many details on how his gas plan would work.
Even so, Dutton has highlighted some truths that the subsequent federal governments did not want me to know.
We are always told that there is a great lack of gas because they have the three large gas liquefaction plants in Gladstone profitable contracts to be exported All. But as Dutton said correctly, there is still much that it is not contracted and therefore it could be deviated for local use.
A way to discourage those companies from the export of so much gas would be to impose a Tax on these exportsAs Dutton suggested. This has these companies largely foreign ownership that reach their lawyers.
We assume that our exports offer us great benefits. Mainly, but not always. We are one of the largest exporters in the world of licensed natural gas, but but Research of the Australia Institute He discovered that Royalties are not paid on 56 % of the gas we export.
Why? Due to the escapade in our tax on the rent of oil resources.
Returning to our complaints for the cost of energy, work always tells us that “renewable energy is incredibly cheap because its fuel [sun and wind] It’s free “.
This is true, but misleading. At present, our grid of high voltage electrical lines ranges from coal fields to large cities such as Melbourne and Sydney. The transition from coal to renewable energies involves the construction of a completely new network of power lines ranging from solar and wind parks.
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Building all those poles and threads is extremely expensive and the cost will be transmitted to you and to me in the prices of the electricity we pay. Only when the new network has been paid, the retail prices will be much lower.
But it is here that the work has played a smart card in these elections with his promise a Subdivision the cost To add a battery to your solar panels on the new or existing roof (and perhaps the coalition will announce something similar).
Some people have a sun on the roof because they want to carry out their part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Some people see it as an investment in reducing electricity bills. And some people have panels because all neighbors have them.
Whatever the reason, about a third of all Australian houses has a sunny sun which, on the basis per person, makes us the largest solar country on the roof of the world. Many people have been encouraged to install solar patterns of federal and state government subsidies.
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Obviously, the panels produce more power than you need during the day and none in the morning when you have many gadgets in the running, especially in winter. So most people put power in the grill during the day and takes it out of night.
But energy experts do not really see the roof as a fundamental part of the complex distribution system they are performing and sometimes the roof can stop.
So, although the Albanian Anthony offer to cover up to 30 % – or $ 4000 – of the purchase and installation of a battery in the house affects the same probability of being quite attractive how the electoral bribes go Want Help reduce pressure on the grid.
True, it has no advantage for tenants or owners of houses who cannot afford the cost of the panels or a battery. But it is wrong to imagine that it is only the rich who would benefit from it. If you are really rich, don’t worry about how big your power bill is.
And don’t forget it: the more voters are seen as the good guys who do their part to stop climate change, the more likely it is that our politicians raise their game.
Ross Gittins is the editor of economics
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