Some varied thoughts on the politics and economics of renewable...

Some varied thoughts on the politics and economics of renewable energy and EVs:

"Economic Prosperity" is important. So is responsible economic management and the transition to a renewable economy.

It is widely known that Norway is one of the leaders in uptake of EVs globally with 80% of new cars sales there in 2022 being EVs. Most people would brand Norway as a welfare state, but if you want to tag it as a socialist state well, I would have no great problem with that. Their wealth was built on oil but they had the wisdom to see that other oil nations had squandered their opportunities (as finite oil resources were consumed) so decided to establish a sovereign fund which is the envy of the world. During the global financial crisis those 'socialists', with their mountains of savings, were scooping up masses of shares at bargain basement prices, like many of us here on Hotcopper. So if one is trying to use 'socialist' as a tag of incompetence, akin to only countries such as Venezuela, that is either grossly misguided or dishonest.

Even during the challenging yet successful management of the WW2 campaign, the Curtin (ALP) Government was already planning for the peacetime programs which, for example, saw the enormous Snowy Mountain Scheme start in 1949 and later completed on time and on budget in 1974, and remains a major component of our national energy infrastructure today. It has been recognised globally as a high grade infrastructure project.

It's widely acknowledged that the long term economic success that Australia has enjoyed over the last 35 years has been largely due to the market economy established by Hawke and Keating when they floated the dollar and introduced more competition.

Minister Bowen gave an overview this morning on ABC TV's Insiders quoting many elements of the proposed energy transition that were promoted by Liberal Ministers Frydenberg and Fletcher in recent times. Meanwhile, the figures quoted by Dutton and his colleagues regarding nuclear power generation have been widely discredited in terms of construction times, costs effectiveness and practicalities.

The government's ongoing subsidies and tax benefits towards diesel rebates and (ICE) tradie utes in this country are not insignificant. So assistance to EV use is quite reasonable.

ESG is no joke for those suffering from chronic breathing difficulties. Progressive governments around the world initiated clean air acts over the last 80 years and saved tens of thousands of lives. It would be outrageous to suggest that companies should be able to expose their staff and the public to asbestos nowadays. These mistakes were costly in terms of lives lost. EVs will be a major benefit to the health of communities world wide with great benefits to health budgets and child development.

ESG is important to Liontown. It was great to see the Liontown women photographed on site recently as their skills are needed and responsible companies should be offering fair work opportunities.

Contributors here have rightly stated that LTR shareholders are a broad church drawn from many regions and political persuasions, and that protracted political contributions should be restricted to the relevant threads, I can only agree. I will not be engaging in ongoing debate on this thread.

But like others, I cannot let unhelpful (repeated) generalities that are not backed up by relevant facts go through to the keeper without comment.