Letter to editor

Just in case you missed it, web search doesn’t find any stories in mainstream media, we’re in danger of being slugged with fees on electricity bills, to keep coal power in business.

Capacity Payment, by ESB (EnergySecurity Board) is supposed to improve reliability and keep prices down. It will do neither. Last year, Australia experienced 200 days of failures of coal power stations. Capacity Payment will cost more than Julia Gillard’s carbon price and do nothing to reduce emissions.

While there’s so much fuss about “fair transition” for people working in the coal industry, our Minister for Energy, Angus Taylor keeps slogging on with ideas supported only by foreign owned coal companies, possibly also by mainstream media, anything to prop up ad revenue.

In other countries, auctions are held for planned new power capacity needed in 4 or 5 years. Obviously renewables and storage are included but fossil fuels can try. Whichever kinds of winners, it’s clear old coal fired power needs orderly retirement plan, not slam bam closure. So fair transition is planned. Process even provides for plan/fine tuning with emission reductions, to stay below 1.5 and/or 2 degrees warming.

In our backyard, how crazy that mainstream media just goes nuts, when possible closures mentioned. Lies about price spikes when Hazelwood closed, lies that renewable energy increases prices. Meanwhile Snowy Mountain, owned by us taxpayers, is now expecting $660Million for gas plant at Kurri Kurri. It’s to make sure Tomago aluminium smelter keeps running, in case $10Billion and counting, Snowy 2.0 pumped(by fossil fuel) hydro or grid connection fails during climate change extreme weather. Obviously Tomago, to be export competitive, will pay less than one tenth of the cost of electricity, from either Snowy2 or Kurri Kurri gas power station.

It’s now only 9 weeks until UN Climate Conference COP26 in Glasgow. Australian emissions track record places us in ugly company with big polluters like Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Look out for headlines from Glasgow about big cuts we need to make to protect all our exports from CBA(Carbon Border Adjustments) which make prices fair, compared with markets of our importing customers, or they’re banned, And fees on your electricity bill to prolong the agony with arthritic coal fired power,

Bernie McComb
Phillip Island 3922