Day 24: 'Business as usual'
An introductory weekday newsletter from Schwartz Media. Counting the days since Australia had an energy policy.
Good morning and welcome to day 24.
Today in summary: The ACCC has conditionally approved the A$13 billion takeover of gas pipeline giant APA Group by Hong Kong based conglomerate Cheung Kong Group; Prime Minister Scott Morrison flagged more emissions reduction measures; and Australians are more worried about climate change, but still not willing to pay more for their electricity to help combat it.
— Charis
Today’s policy spin level: 💨💨💨
New Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will face his first test as overseer of the Foreign Investment Review Board, now that the competition regulator has approved Cheung Kong Group’s takeover of APA. Frydenberg will need to decide if he’s ok with an offshore company owning around 60% of Australia’s pipelines. The deal was the first to be reviewed by the Turnbull government’s Critical Infrastructure Committee, and hinges on an undertaking by the bidder to sell the Western Australian assets to another party.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government would rely on a “business-as-usual” and “technology-driven” approach to ensure Australia is acting consistently with its emissions reduction targets. In an interview on the ABC’s 7.30, he emphasised the role of the Emissions Reduction Fund, which was not topped up in the May budget.
“Well, that's how we're meeting our 2020 target and Melissa Price, the (Environment) Minister, will be bringing forward further measures in this area to make sure we're acting consistently with our targets”.
An increasing number of Australians (73% up from 66%) are concerned about climate change, according to a new poll from progressive think tank the Australia Institute. The poll, which has been running for more than 10 years, found 68% believed the government should set domestic targets to comply with our Paris commitments. More than a third (38%) said big polluters should pay the cost of climate action, 21% pointed to taxpayers and 10% wanted the people facing climate change impacts to foot the bill.
The findings come on the back of the latest Newspoll which found 46% of voters would support Australia withdrawing from the Paris climate accord if doing so resulted in lower electricity prices. The Australia Institute poll found 55% blamed power companies for high electricity prices, 52% privatisation, 41% poor policy making and 29% renewable energy sources.
Coming up
The House Standing Committee on Economics will hold public hearings in Canberra today as it inquires into impediments to business investment. The Committee has already heard from stakeholders in Melbourne and Sydney. It has received several submissions from the energy sector calling for bipartisan agreement on energy policy and throwing support behind the National Energy Guarantee to help foster investment.
The Commentariat
The US state of California, which this week signed its most ambitious climate target yet into law, is “acting as a test bed for what’s technically achievable, providing a massive market for the rollout of clean-energy technologies and building a body of knowledge that other states and nations can leverage,” according to the MIT Technology Review.
California and Germany would already be getting 100% of their electricity from low-emissions sources had they invested US$680 billion in new nuclear power plants instead of renewables, writes Forbes contributor Michael Shellenberger. He says renewables-only policies have made both countries climate laggards compared to nuclear-heavy places like France, whose electricity is 12 times less carbon intensive than Germany’s, and 4 times less carbon intensive than California’s.
“Over the last 20 years the share of electricity from clean energy globally has declined because the increase in electricity coming from solar and wind wasn’t enough to offset the decline of nuclear.”
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.