Andrew L. Urban
Anthony ‘Albo’ Albanese is determined to undermine (poor pun) Australia’s economy in pursuit of a socialist, energy-poor future. The evidence for that claim is him welding Chris Bowen to the climate change and energy portfolio post-election. As everyone knows, energy IS the economy; Bowen is its mortal enemy.
Inarguably, energy is an existential policy area. Get it wrong for too long, and a nation’s well-being will crumble more and more noticeably. First power prices and cost of everyday goods, then stuttering public services, manufacturing disruptions and widespread power outages … slow at first, then sudden. By the time the food in your freezer goes off, it will be too late. The energizer bunny will be extinct.
Bowen’s policy settings prioritise the reduction and ultimate elimination of carbon dioxide emissions by fossil fuels over all other considerations. There is scant attention to the provision of genuinely reliable energy.
His portfolio focuses on transitioning Australia to a renewable energy-dominated grid, with a target of 82% renewable energy by 2030, backed by storage solutions like batteries and pumped hydro, and a reduced role for coal and gas. This transition is part of Labor’s broader climate agenda, including achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and a 55% emissions reduction by 2035. Don’t laugh, this is serious. Bowen’s policies, such as the Capacity Investment Scheme, the Home Battery plan, and the Solar Sunshot initiative, aim to bolster renewable energy infrastructure and manufacturing while phasing out fossil fuels.
defying facts
These policy settings have been developed on the basis of what the law calls ‘hearsay’ evidence which effectively claims that (the 3% of) carbon dioxide in the atmosphere produced by burning fossil fuels drives global warming. Although this has never been shown to be factual, it has been widely accepted, along with the claim that warming is caused by CO2 … contrary to the geological evidence.
These beliefs have encouraged policies that demonise fossil fuels (plentiful in Australia) in favour of unreliable alternatives that demand massive subsidies and drive up consumption costs, adding to higher prices and the cost of living. Adding insult to injury is the Albowen line that renewables are the cheapest form of power, as consumers face extensive power price rises. Defying facts runs in the climate alarmist family.
In short, Net Zero is pollie-speak for sabotage – a wilful disruption to an energy-rich country. To help sell the transition to renewables in political terms, the term ‘clean energy’ has been co-opted to mask reality. The dishonesty here is blatant, casting invisible, clean, life-essential carbon dioxide as ‘dirty’ by contrast. This is more evidence that the climate narrative was always about manipulating politics, not global warming.
Albowen politics explains why Australia continues to earn billions exporting fossil fuels but chokes their use domestically, restricting Australians’ access to our once abundant and inexpensive energy – it ain’t saving the planet.
Andrew L. Urban is the author of Climate Alarm Reality Check (Wilkinson)