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If Australia taxed windfall gas profits we could invest billions in renewables and get off fossil fuels for good

"Can a Carbon-Emitting Iron Ore Tycoon Save the Planet?
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It would lessen their incentive to price gouge if they were not allowed to keep exorbitant price gouged gains and were taxed on them heavily.
Repubs have no plan other than another insurrection that they have communicated. No other stated plans for anything other than contesting elections.
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Richard Denniss

The sooner we shift away from ageing coal and expensive gas, the quicker electricity prices and emissions will fall


‘Charging Australians the world price of gas (no matter how much it actually costs to
produce here in Australia) is doing more to drive investment in renewable energy
than anything Scott Morrison ever did.’ Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Wed 8 Jun 2022 03.30 AEST
Last modified on Wed 8 Jun 2022 15.48 AEST

A massive expansion in Australia’s gas production did nothing to make gas cheap for Australian homes and businesses. A decade of propping up ageing coal-fired power stations did nothing to ensure the reliability of our electricity supply. And the Coalition’s so-called “gas trigger” and “big stick” electricity reforms have done nothing to control Australian energy prices. It’s as if everything Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor did was announce things instead of fixing them.

There’s no shortage of coal or gas in Australia, there’s a shortage of generation capacity and the infrastructure to move energy to where it’s needed. Just as the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow, Australians have now learned the hard way that the coal trains don’t always run and the coal-fired power stations often break down.

In the last month, more than 30% of Australia’s coal output went offline .. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/some-coal-power-capacity-to-return-this-week-aiding-wholesale-prices-20220510-p5ak2d .. as ageing infrastructure buckled under pressure and coal output hit record lows .. https://reneweconomy.com.au/market-chaos-as-outages-push-coal-output-to-record-low-despite-new-wind-peaks/ . Last year Queensland’s Callide coal power station .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-26/queensland-blackout-callide-power-station-failure-explained/100164976 .. exploded, causing blackouts from the New South Wales border to Cairns. In just the last seven days .. https://reneweconomy.com.au/market-chaos-as-outages-push-coal-output-to-record-low-despite-new-wind-peaks/ , there have been further coal outages in Victoria and Queensland.

Energy companies urged to find more gas for Australia as Labor mulls supply ‘trigger’ to ease price surge
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/07/energy-companies-urged-to-find-more-gas-for-australia-as-labor-mulls-supply-trigger-to-ease-price-surge

Given that most of these stations were built before email was invented, it should hardly come as a surprise. Despite Taylor’s latest claim that clean energy advocates want to “ban the BBQ .. https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/shadow-treasurer-angus-taylor-says-labor-must-work-with-major-gas-companies-to-shore-up-supply-and-bring-prices-down/news-story/167cceb9d697900aba3ab7767d71673a ” – the reality is that ageing coal can’t keep the lights on.

The irony is that the high gas prices caused by the gas industry’s practice of charging Australians the world price of gas (no matter how much it actually costs to produce here in Australia) is doing more to drive investment in renewable energy and storage than anything Morrison ever did. Renewable energy .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/renewableenergy .. with storage is not just cleaner and more reliable than gas and coal, it’s cheaper as well. The Coalition would embrace this free-market competition, if it weren’t captured by the gas industry.

[Insert:Island in the energy price storm: renewables help ACT cut power costs
[...]
All thanks to Labor and Green politicians elected by the good people of the ACT all those years ago.
ACT is the only jurisdiction bucking the trend of soaring power bills now plaguing the rest of Australia
[...]
The ACT reached 100% renewables in 2020.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169083387]

The “Canberra bubble” is cold at this time of year, but thanks to the ACT’s farsighted policy of sourcing 100% of its electricity from renewable energy the average electricity bill in the nation’s capital will fall this year while other jurisdictions face eye-watering price rises of up to 140% .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-29/power-pain-as-bills-tipped-to-rise-40-per-cent-on-surging-prices/101023488 . Who’d have thought that there would be benefits for citizens when their governments make long-term plans and stick to them?

The brutal truth is that there isn’t much the newly elected Labor government can do to increase the supply of electricity generation capacity in the coming months. While the gas industry is trying to exploit the crisis they caused by calling for rapid approvals for even more gas wells, the only short-term benefit of such approvals would be in the form of headlines suggesting the government is “doing something”. The previous government was a huge fan of these announcements and that’s a large reason why Australia is in this mess today.

While it would take years, at best, for new fossil fuel supply to come online, the diplomatic impact of approving more gas or coal projects would be instantaneous. If there is one thing our Pacific neighbours have said they fear most, it’s climate change. And if there’s one thing they want from a newly elected Australian government it’s a moratorium on new fossil fuel projects .. https://cop23.com.fj/nadi-bay-declaration-on-the-climate-change-crisis-in-the-pacific/#:~:text=Recall%20the%20Suva%20Declaration%20on,3. .

Morrison was masterful at using small announcements to conceal big problems. And while such an approach delivered him one unexpected election victory, it also delivered the subsequent decimation for his party and a mountain of unsolved problems for our country.

[Was this a surprise?...
AUSTRALIA OUSTS PM SCOTT MORRISON, ENDING YEARS OF CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP
Washington Post - May 21, 2022
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=168932659]

The newly elected Labor government can’t be expected to deliver a magic fix for today’s energy prices, but the approach it adopts in the coming weeks will define it for years to come.

Island in the energy price storm: renewables help ACT cut power costs
Read more > [as above] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/06/island-in-the-energy-price-storm-renewables-help-act-cut-power-costs

Fossil fuel photo opportunities will deliver nothing but raised expectations and future disappointments.

Admitting there’s no quick fix is crucial to solving the real problem. Past policy failures mean this winter will be expensive for Australians yet to transition away from gas and very profitable for those companies who export 80% of it.

The quicker Australia invests in renewables, storage and the transmission capacity to rapidly move electrons from where they are generated to where they are needed, the quicker electricity prices and Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions will fall.

Luckily for Labor there is one simple policy they can implement today that will help smooth the transition forward: a windfall gains tax on the extra gas profits that the Ukraine war is delivering to the companies exporting so much Australian gas overseas. Boris Johnson has just imposed one in the UK .. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/26/cost-of-living-crisis-uk-slaps-windfall-tax-on-oil-and-gas-giants.html , countries like Norway have always had one .. https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/europe/norway-petroleum-tax-hit-record-high-nok-295-billion-in-2021-due-to-gas-price-hike-articleshow.html , and were Australia to introduce one today it could spend billions on helping homes and businesses get off gas once and for all. If the British can impose a 25% tax on British Petroleum it’s hard to believe we can’t.

The fossil fuel industry has been lying to Australians for years about the amount of benefit we get from their plans and their profits. And now, in the middle of a crisis of their own creation, pretending the best way for us to help ourselves is to help them first. As Australians brace for a cold, expensive winter of discontent, it’s time to call BS on the gas industry.

The sooner Australia shifts away from producing and burning fossil fuels the sooner we will see cheap energy, improved relationships with the Pacific and a stable climate. Announceables, deflection and hot air were the Morrison mantra. Australians now deserve honest energy solutions.

Richard Denniss is chief economist of independent thinktank, the Australia Institute. @RDNS_TAI .. https://twitter.com/RDNS_TAI

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/08/if-australia-taxed-windfall-gas-profits-we-could-invest-billions-in-renewables-and-get-off-fossil-fuels-for-good

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Shock report reveals 95.7 per cent of Australia’s gas profits are going to foreign owners

Australians are preparing to be hit with “apocalyptic” gas prices, with majority of the profits headed overseas.

Lauren Ferri @lauren_ferri June 13, 2022 - 6:00AM NCA NewsWire

VIDEO 5:49 A 'number of factors' at play...
The Australian Energy Council’s Chief Executive Sarah McNamara says there are multiple factors affecting the developing energy crisis. “There are a number of factors at play here that have all happened at once,” she told Sky News host Chris Kenny. The short-term domestic factors are insufficient onshore gas development, unexpected coal plant maintenance outages, global gas and coal shortages due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and reduced energy production from renewables in the cooler months. “All of these factors have put upward pressure on the wholesale market price, and we’re grappling with the impacts of that now.” Ms McNamara said the improvement of coal plant maintenance processes may see the situation “get a little bit better” in the coming months. “Really though, we’re going to need to ride this one out. “Fortunately, most of the market is contracted, and retailers do hedge their risks to protect customers from the full force of the wholesale market price spikes,” she said.

While most Australians are preparing to be hit with skyrocketing gas prices, a shocking report has revealed most of the profits will be going to foreign owners.

Researchers have conducted a deep-dive analysis of companies on the Australian Stock Exchange and found 95.7 per cent are foreign owned.

With 80 per cent of Australia’s gas being exported out of the country, households and businesses are experiencing price shock with “apocalyptic” rises in energy prices nationwide.

[hap, Silly non-equivalence by you. Australia's national energy regulator steps in as generator operators were manipulating the market.
"[...]Worked good in Russia, Cuba, everywhere -- wow"
National electricity market suspended as NSW residents told to conserve power to reduce blackout risk
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The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has been forced to step in and cap gas prices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to $40 per gigajoule, but it is still five times higher than last year’s prices.


Australians will be paying “apocalyptic” gas prices to foreign owners. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

However, the frustrations won’t stop there with the bombshell revelation in the The Australia Institute’s report that most of the jacked up prices will be flowing overseas.

“Our research reveals the companies making super profits from shock gas prices are 95.7 per cent foreign owned,” report author and Senior Research Fellow at the Australia Institute, David Richardson, said.

This means Australian equity is just 4.3 per cent.

While households are “paying a fortune” to compete with the gas export industry, Mr Richardson says it is being run by foreign-owned companies who “pay little or no tax”.

“Australians are entitled to ask how this industry is serving the national interest,” Mr Richardson said.

“It’s time for the Government to consider a windfall profits tax to ensure Australians get a fair share of our natural resources and this $62.5b industry.”


80 per cent of Australia’s gas being exported out of the country. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

Meanwhile, the report also found that major Australian companies which have statutory limits on the permissible level of foreign ownership are exceeding them.

While Telstra has a limit of 35 per cent, the research suggests the telecom company is 51 per cent foreign owned.

Mr Richardson said his data found Qantas was also “well in excess” and is currently 62 per cent foreign owned, when it should be 49 per cent.

“It is alarming that Australia’s national telco and airline have both exceeded statutory limits for foreign ownership,” he said.

Overall, Mr Richardson says there is “further work” to be done by the government to “examine the extent of foreign ownership” in Australia.

https://www.news.com.au/national/shock-report-reveals-957-per-cent-of-australias-gas-profits-are-going-to-foreign-owners/news-story/766335bb203e389e6aab1a39be7afa98