Bolt: How Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen aredestroying our electricity system
Last weekconfirmed a truth so frightening and extraordinary that many Australians stillcan’t believe it. Yes, our electricity system is being destroyed by two politicians– Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen – who can’t tell the difference betweentheir green fantasies and the facts.
The news last week was an announcement missed by most of the media: a NSW solar panels company, Sundrive,was sacking a reported 35 workers and changing direction.
Sundrive is notjust significant because the government gave it $11 million.
In late March, Prime Minister Albanese and EnergyMinister Bowen also paraded its then-CEO at a joint press conference topersuade voters Sundrive was our future.
Yes! They had a new $1 billion Sunshot fund to get companies like Sundriveto make solar panels in Australia, so we didn’t just import them from China.
Never mind China producing panels so cheaply thateconomists warn we could never compete. Albanese and Bowen live in analternative green universe.
So Albanese babbled that his billion dollars wouldmean Sundrive and other companies would make our own solar panels to give us “a future made right here inAustralia”.
Albanese pointed to power workers behind him, sayingthey could train for this new future and “will never be out of work.”
Bowen chipped in: “Sundrive will be employing PhDs,down to school leavers who will get these skills on the job in manufacturing.”
Howembarrassing. It’s taken just four months to prove Albanese and Bowen have noidea, and their $27 billion “Made In Australia” scheme – a green-energy slushfund – is built on sand.
Sundrive has now replaced its CEO, sacked some of the workersAlbanese claimed “willnever be out of work” and declared it would now focus on inventing better solar panels, not manufacturing them.
But no commentfrom Albanese or Bowen, although voters must now wonder whether the lights willstill be on if these fantasists aren’t stopped soon.
Their plan is both simple and simply insane. It’s cut our emissions to saveus from animaginary“climate crisis” by destroying almost all our remaining coal-fired powerstationswithin adecade and replacing them with something that either won’t work or hasn’t beeninvented. This, they claim, will save us money.
As if. Open your eyes!
For instance, Albanese promised his green schemeswould cut average household electricity bills by $275 a year. Oops – they’ve risen nearly $450.
Bowen promised to make the new Kurri Kurri gas plantwork on green hydrogen, made by pumping massive amounts of wind and solarelectricity through water. Oops– the plant operator admitted nine months later it couldn’t work.
Albanese promised to give billions to companies tomake green hydrogen so we’d become “a renewable energy superpower”. Oops – our biggest hydrogeninvestor, billionaire Andrew Forrest, last month walked away from most of hisplanned investments, admitting green hydrogen was too expensive.
Everywhere youlook, the government’s green plans are in strife. Its rollout of new wind andsolar plants is way behind schedule. Its Snowy 2.0 pumped-hydro scheme isnearly 10 times the original cost, and years behind. Its new transmission linesto hook up all the new renewable projects are also behind time and over budget.
Australians are now starting to see the price of thismadness: higher electricity bills, vandalised landscapes, warnings of blackoutsfrom the Australian Energy Market Operator, and the silent wipe-out of our nickel industry, which useslots of electricity.
Even the government seems to dimly see we’re instrife, even if won’t change course. Bowen this month was panicked enough tosuggest we could stop the lights from going out by hooking up electric cars to the electricity gridto drain their batteries when we were short of power.
What next? Connect exercise bikes to the grid?
What makes thiseven more maddening is the government is backing nutty or unproven technologieswhile banning nuclear power, which is safe, efficient, zero emissions andproven.
For instance, Bowen last year mocked the Opposition’sproposal for small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs, as a “pipe dream” and“pie in the sky”.
Yet China has almost finished building its LinglongSMR, a technology it boasts will quickly be sold around the world.
Imagine that: our competitors humming 24/7 on nuclearpower while we’re keeping our electric cars in the garage to keep on theflickering wind-powered lights.
It’s a ridiculous. But can Albanese and Bowen bestopped in time to save ourselves from the consequences of their delusions?
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