OPINION
Insanity is said to be doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting different results. In which case, Australia’s ruling elite are barking mad.
Well, we knew that anyway. But it’s one thing to “know” something, quite another to have it demonstrated beyond all denial.
Because, despite the clear proof that, everywhere it’s been tried, the higher the penetration of “renewables” (with the exception of hydro) into a country’s electricity generation, the higher and higher electricity prices have soared.
The gibbering loons in the Albanese government and Australia’s energy bureaucracy obviously thought they were going to be the exception to the rule. Remember Anthony Albanese’s 90-times-repeated promise to slash electricity bills by $275 a year?
Cold, hard reality is smashing Australian consumers in the face.
Australian electricity bills rose by up to 20 per cent over the past 12 months, the country’s energy regulator has said, although some reprieve could be imminent as the market endures less volatility than in 2022.
By “some reprieve”, they mean, not prices returning to normal, but maybe — maybe — they might stop skyrocketing. For a while.
But why would we believe them about even that? Because they have models? We’ve all seen how useful their models have been, so far. The definition of insanity, remember?
And when the cost of energy goes up, the cost of everything goes up.
Figures from the Australian Energy Regulator underscore how electricity and gas have been a key driver behind the country’s cost-of-living crisis that has seen a record number of households and businesses claim hardship assistance as they struggle with soaring inflation and rapidly rising interest rates.
The AER has approved two consecutive years of price rises of up to 20 per cent, but retailers often discount against the default market offer in a bid to win and retain customers.
In other words, it would have been even worse if the government and bureaucrats hadn’t interfered in the market in a desperate bid to paper over their egregious failures.
AER chair Clare Savage said improvements in the wholesale market over the past 12 months were driven by luck and the federal government’s move to cap the price of coal.
“Generally we have seen better market outcomes this year, aided by milder winter temperatures, improved generation availability and the impact of government interventions in coal and gas markets along with energy bill subsidies,” said Ms Savage.
When a really cold winter hits, as it inevitably will, and the government runs out of other peoples’ money, as it inevitably will, the price rises will come roaring back.
Especially when the ruling class are demented zealots of the Climate Cult.
Signs of lower increases to energy and gas bills will be welcomed by the Reserve Bank and the federal government, which has promised to deliver cheaper bills and accelerate the country’s energy transition.
Further increases to utility bills could provide a floor to inflation and force more interest rate rises.
Labor has legislated a target of having renewable energy generate more than 80 per cent of the country’s electricity by 2030, a target the Coalition has sought to blame for higher customer bills.
Here come the lies.
Much of the increase in household bills was driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which triggered a global energy crunch and sent prices for coal and gas to record levels.
The Australian
This is not even a fraction of the truth.
The truth is that, as Donald Trump pointed out to universal derision from the Climate Cult elite, Europe had made itself dangerously dependent on Russian gas with its lunatic “Net Zero” virtue-signalling. By shutting down their own fossil fuel and nuclear industries, the loons in Brussels, London and Berlin did nothing to lower their actual carbon dioxide emissions: all they did was sweep them under the Russian carpet.
And when that rug was pulled out from under them, they had almost nowhere left to turn.
Having shut down their own energy exploration, suddenly gas from countries like Australia was in high demand. High demand, scarce supply: the iron rule of economics kicks in.
Worse, the more natural gas Germany and Britain demanded just to keep their lights on and heaters running, the less there was to manufacture agricultural fertilisers, triggering a food shortage on top of an energy crisis.
These people should be locked up in padded cells and kept as far away from the levers of powers as possible.