Day 39: 'Comfortable' talks
An introductory weekday newsletter from Schwartz Media. Counting the days since Australia had an energy policy.
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Good morning and welcome to day 39.
Today in summary: Greens leader Richard di Natale is keeping his options open on whether the party would once again block climate policy it considers has “weak targets” should Labor win the next election (but not the Senate); AGL reaffirmed its commitment to closing the Liddell coal power plant in 2022; and electricity retailers forced to flag price increases with customers five days in advance.
— Charis
Current policy spin level: 💨 💨
The Australian Energy Daily bunker is in Melbourne, which is once again afflicted with football fever, so we won’t be publishing In the dark tomorrow. We’ll be back on Monday.
In a policy speech at the National Press Club yesterday, Greens leader Richard di Natale wouldn’t be drawn on how the party would vote on energy policy should Labor win the next election. A Labor government may try to legislate the national energy guarantee with a 45% emissions reduction target in the electricity sector alone, a move that could prove difficult should it fail to gain a majority in the Senate. “I don’t trust the Labor party to deliver on climate change,” he said.
“We know that the only reason we got a price on carbon and the only reason we got the Clean Energy Finance Corporation is because we had Greens in the balance of power in both houses.”
The Greens want to re-establish a government-owned and not-for-profit energy retailer. Their energy policy platform includes a target of net zero or net negative Australian greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2040, and the renewable energy target to be extended beyond 2020.
The GuardianAGL is sticking to its plan to shutter the Liddell coal power plant in 2022, despite “comfortable” talks between interim AGL chief Brett Redman and new Energy Minister Angus Taylor. Speaking at the energy giant’s Annual General Meeting, Redman acknowledged the need for power prices to come down, but said the overall strategic direction of the business remained the same. Executives fronted protesters and hours of questioning about the company’s planned liquefied natural gas import terminal at Crib Point in Westernport Bay.
And in breaking news, AGL has been hit with yet another fine from Victoria’s Essential Services Commission, this time for wrongfully disconnecting a gas customer and leaving them off supply for 113 days. The ESC’s Ron Ben-David must surely be growing tired of finding new stern words for Australia’s oldest listed company.
Australian Financial Review | ABCElectricity retailers will be required to give customers five days’ notice of upcoming prices changes under new rules from the Australian Energy Market Commission. The AEMC will also be bringing in civil penalties for retailers that don’t comply, a very real prospect, given the challenges flagged by the industry in their submissions over the rule change. “While we have a small level of flexibility to manage internal processes and timelines, there is a point at which meeting a notification timeframe will either potentially impact the quality or cost of our decision-making processes and implementation to the detriment of customers,” Energy Australia claimed in its submission.
The Advertiser
Geopolitics
China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, has set a goal of 35% renewables by 2030, according to a new draft plan from the country’s National Development & Reform Commission. The updated plan comes after China slapped a 10% tax on gas imports from the US. China plans to use fines for non-compliant companies to help cover the cost of subsidies or renewables projects.
Bloomberg
The Commentariat
A worrying trend for world leaders to reach for “extreme and imprudent remedies to admittedly complex problems,” could mean climate change ends up costing the world’s economy far more than the 4% of global GDP forecast, writes Bloomberg’s Tyler Cowan. For example, while the rational approach to forced migration due to climate change would involve “foreign aid plus the cooperative parceling out of refugees to different countries,” Cowan writes, the reality will probably see border clashes, a further radicalisation of politics, and refugee camps full of hundreds of thousands of people, leading to more extremist terrorism.
Three more things
The warring owners of the US state of Georgia’s Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project have reached an agreement enabling the project to proceed, just days after their dispute about “potentially billions more in cost overruns affecting customers of nearly every utility in Georgia” went public. Any cost overruns now seem set to be guaranteed by the project’s lead owner, Georgia Power. The expansion is the US’s only nuclear project still under construction.
Bill Gates’ US$1 billion clean energy investment fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures has announced its first round of funding recipients. Breakthrough’s investment portfolio now includes the Berkeley-based startup Fervo Energy, which plans to apply fracking techniques to the geothermal industry to convert latent heat into a clean energy source.
The University of Melbourne and the University of New South Wales are joint recipients of an A$8.6 million research grant for investigating the performance and value of reciprocating engines running on renewable hydrogen. The project will be partially funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, and is to be undertaken in collaboration with industry partners Energy Power Systems Australia, Meridian Energy Australia, Continental and MAN Energy Solutions.
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.