I think Taylor really didn't help the fossil argument at all. He squirmed his way around the hard questions such as pressuring Zibelman. There is already plenty of other examples out there of Taylor trying to bend the rules and deflect away from renewables. He craps on about ' dispatchable power ' without ever offering up any numbers. The days of trusting people ( particularly politicians ) who make motherhood statements with no data to back them up are over. Especially when you have the availability of accurate information at hand from AEMO, ESB, Gratten, Monash etc.
To be fair, the technology is changing very quickly which would make it difficult to get any future plan 100% right.
That said, one needs to be flexible in order to compensate for that. Trying to massively develop an industry that clearly has a short future is not the smartest move. We still have heaps of available gas offshore in the NW that is available for development without going to marginal greefield sites like CSG that the community doesn't want already.
I reckon Santos much be getting pretty nervous. Fancy trying to make a financial decision where you know the price you need is twice what the government is suggesting and is an industry that is under intense competition from alternative technologies ? Mix in the fact that the direction it is at the whim of a handful of politicians who want to keep their jobs. When you see the determination of people like Matt Keane in NSW, Andrews in Victoria, Marshall in SA, Gutwein in Tassie, Palaszczuk in Qld, all of who have big renewable plans, you have to wonder about the certainty of a long term gas market.
I see Liveris talking up the setting up of US manufacturing. I wonder how that is panning out now under a Biden administration ?
Gas is an important feedstock. No doubt about it. The fact that we didn't develop an east coast domestic gas reserve even though the politicians were warned 10 years ago still bugs me. Look at the problems it continues to cause now.
Interesting the role it plays when you hear the real data though. You have Liveris saying one thing and yet you have the data saying something completely different when it comes to cost to business and the number of jobs it creates.
I reckon this thing might blow up on the Coalition.
