Day 19: Surviving a dirt nap
An introductory weekday newsletter from Schwartz Media. Counting the days since Australia had an energy policy.
Good morning and welcome to day 19.
Today in summary: Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott joined a raft of other business leaders predicting a chill in investment while there’s no certainty on emissions policy; energy regulators are getting on with the things they can control; and the coal v renewables debate warmed up in the US ahead of November’s mid-term elections.
— Charis
Today’s policy spin level: 💨💨
Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott remains gloomy on bipartisan agreement on energy policy, telling the ABC’s RN it’s not a good strategy for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to remove emissions from the debate.
“I understand it politically, but the simple reality is the government signed up to the Paris agreement and we strongly support it.”
Westacott added that it wouldn’t matter if the Coalition pulled Australia out of the Paris agreement because the other side of politics would never accept that.
“I think our senate has failed us and our political process has failed us. We have basically had 10 years of not being able to do a single thing on the fundamentals of our economy.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison stuck to his talking points on “fair dinkum power” yesterday in Albury.
“What do I mean by fair dinkum? Stuff that works when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. That is the reliable power that we need in our system.”
Meanwhile Ai Group policy adviser Tennant Reed tweeted that while the NEG was taking a “dirt nap”, the Australian Energy Market Commission’s plans for demand response was an example of critical market reform the sector could get on with.
The AEMC yesterday also released a draft rule on hardship policies for vulnerable electricity customers, and recommended the COAG Energy Council make a law to prevent new retailers from starting their business until they have approved hardship policies in place.
The Trump administration is moving ahead with plans to replace the Clean Power Plan that regulates power plant emissions. US environmental policy is likely to end up in the Supreme Court, where new judge Brett Kavanaugh is being confirmed. Law Professor Mark N. Templeton has taken a look at Kavanaugh’s decision record on environmental cases, finding he has consistently ruled against federal environmental, public health and workers’ protections. Meanwhile, the US National Coal Council, which advises the Energy secretary released a draft report calling on the Department of Energy to “assess, support, reform and renew the role of the existing coal fleet in the U.S. power sector”.
Forbes
Geopolitics
South Korea has some catching up to do on energy policy, according to a report on Korea’s 8th Basic Energy Plan from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. The pro-renewables IEEFA says the 51% state-owned Korea Electric Power Company and the Korean Development Bank have been hesitant to invest in clean energy, and also need to improve corporate governance on climate risk. The Institute says Singapore is further advanced in selling down coal debt as it weighs the climate risk.
Indonesia’s government has put US$25 billion worth of power projects on hold as it tries to stem its widening current account deficit and currency sell-off. The move is expected to curb imports. Crude oil producers in Indonesia will also be required to offer their output to state-owned oil giant PT Petamina rather than selling it in Singapore.
Bloomberg
Coming Up
Federal parliament resumes on Monday, where the Senate will consider the Greens’ Coal-Fired Power Funding Prohibition Bill. The Bill prohibits the Commonwealth government or its agencies from funding the refurbishment, building or purchase, or assisting in the transfer of ownership, of a coal-fired power station.
The Commentariat
The ABC’s Tonightly program has been axed, but is going out with a bang, taking on Australian energy policy with more f**ks than we could count. Warning: keep the speakers on mute because the audio is NSFW.
Writing in The Australian, Jessica Lovering of the pro-nuclear think tank The Breakthrough Institute says Australia’s prohibitions on nuclear technologies are out of touch with novel nuclear designs such as small modular reactors and microreactors.
“Every year Australia exports more than 400 shipping containers of uranium, enough to generate all of its own electricity with zero emissions.”
This is an introductory service while we’re building a comprehensive daily paid online publication, coming in early 2019.
We’re not here to take sides, simply to cut through the noise, and help you make sense of the emerging policy and market trends you need to be across. We call it pure intel. You can read more about us here.