Day 43: On track
An introductory weekday newsletter from Schwartz Media. Counting the days since Australia had an energy policy.
Good morning and welcome to day 43.
Today in summary: Australian gas producers signed a new agreement with the government to step up supply in the event of a shortfall; new data on Australia’s carbon emissions hasn’t escaped scrutiny, despite being released on a Friday night amid footy finals and the banking royal commission interim report; and ten years on from the final report of the Garnaut Climate Change Review, economist Ross Garnaut remains optimistic Australia can become “the developed world’s energy superpower”.
— Charis
Today’s policy spin level: 💨💨💨
LNG exporters Origin Energy, Santos and Shell have signed a new agreement with the federal government promising to sell gas to domestic customers in the event of a shortfall. The deal means uncontracted gas will not be offered to the international market unless equivalent volumes of gas have first been offered locally on “competitive market terms”. The new agreement runs to 2020. Industry body APPEA urged the government to do more to develop new gas supply.
Australia’s carbon emissions increased 1.3% in the year to March 2018, led largely by LNG production for export, according to the government’s first National Greenhouse Gas Inventory for the year. Environment Minister Melissa Price said the report “clearly shows Australia is on track to beat its 2020 emissions target”.
National emissions were 1.9% below 2000 levels and 11.2% below 2005 levels in the year to March. However the Climate Council, a climate change communications organisation that was reformed with donation funding after being abolished by the Abbott government, said Australia was now “further away from effectively tackling climate change than ever before”. The federal government database tracks progress towards Australia’s 2020 emissions reduction target, which is a 5% reduction in emissions on year 2000 levels.Economist Ross Garnaut said despite “the incoherence of policy” since the Abbott government scrapped the carbon tax, Australia could still utilise “our exceptional resources for lower carbon energy to emerge as the developed world's energy superpower”. Speaking on the ten year anniversary of the final report of the Garnaut Climate Change Review, Garnaut said there was good progress in the electricity sector as a result of the RET, evidenced by the 4.3% fall in power sector emissions in the year to March.
Geopolitics
Qatar’s state-owned petroleum company said it would expand its production capacity, in a move some say could hurt US greenfield LNG projects. It comes as China plans a 10% tariff on LNG imports from the US.
Interfax Global Energy
Coming up
Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio will speak at the All Energy conference being held in Melbourne on Wednesday. She will be followed by Greens energy spokesperson Adam Bandt.
The Commentariat
Renewables require a rethink of how we measure energy use, and if so, could lead to a scenario of “peak energy,” writes Bloomberg’s Liam Denning. He says because thermal energy from fossil fuels doesn’t work the same way as renewable energy, the energy usage of each shouldn’t be measured side by side.
“Consider an electric car being charged mostly with power from renewable sources. If it replaces a car running on gasoline, then it doesn’t just displace the useful gallon turning the wheels, but also the other three that were just making the radiator do its job.“
Three more things
Tidal energy company DP Energy has received C$29.8 million from a Canadian government agency to build a 9-megawatt tidal array demonstration project off the coast of Nova Scotia. Marine energy has been struggling to reach the commercialisation stage around te world. Australian wave energy startup Carnegie Clean Energy recently posted a A$64 million loss and failed to meet the first funding milestone for a wave energy project in Albany, leading to the resignation of its CEO.
Axios | ABC
Nuclear energy continues to attract government subsidies in both the US and UK. Backers of modular nuclear power technology in the UK have been asking the government for up to £3.6 billion to cover the construction of their first projects, reports The Guardian. They’ve also asked for up to £480m to “steer their reactor designs through the regulatory approval process, which is a cost usually paid by nuclear companies”.
Meanwhile in the US, a second appellate court decision upheld states' authority to subsidise nuclear plants. The decision came after the warring owners of Georgia’s Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project reached an agreement enabling the project to proceed, in the face of billions of dollars of cost overruns.
Axios
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