Electrical power in Australia — from success to failure: The consequences of the war on coal and gas

American Thinker ^ | 09/22/2019 | Viv Forbes

[SeekAndFind]

Our grandfathers built a low-cost reliable decentralized electricity supply for all states of Australia based mainly on black and brown coalfields — Blair Athol, Callide, Ipswich, Sydney/Newcastle, Yallourn, Leigh Creek, and Collie.

Then our fathers built the mighty Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric scheme, which provided water to irrigate the inland while generating electricity to help pay for it.

In the years up to 1980, huge new coal-fired power plants were constructed in each state. We discovered oil and gas in Roma, Bass Strait, Barrow Island, Timor Sea, and in coal and shale in many places.

Coal and hydro gave Australia reliable low-cost electricity that was the envy of the world and supported primary, secondary, and tertiary industries.

We irrigated crops; electrified cities; powered railways and mines; refined metals and petroleum; and processed milk, wool, cotton, grains, meat, and fruit. Factories made Victa mowers, Southern Cross windmills, and diesel engines. Holden, Ford, Toyota, and Mitsubishi all produced cars in Australia, and we made nine brands of tractors. The Ipswich railway workshops produced locomotives and rolling stock, and Lithgow produced small arms. We canned Golden Circle pineapples, Ardmona stone fruits, and Rosella jams and made Bully Beef, tomato sauce, and Vegemite.

Australia once valued decentralization, and it served us well in electricity supply. Electricity generation and distribution was left in the hands of state-based engineers and entrepreneurs, and competitive state governments strove to ensure that their states had the most reliable low-cost electricity. In those days, a state "co-ordinator general" was charged with predicting demand for electricity and then ensuring that power stations were built in the right place at the right time. The distant federal government largely confined itself to defense, foreign affairs, immigration, and quarantine (with increasing meddling into wage-setting, welfare, and devaluation of the currency).

[SeekAndFind]

All that changed with the U.N.-initiated climate war on coal and gas, which drove a campaign of tax-delay-and-destroy hydrocarbon energy.

[txrefugee]

The enemy Left in every country was smart to attack modern nations by trying to shut down the sources of energy to industry. They are terrorists.

[antidemoncrat]

“All that changed with the U.N.-initiated climate war on coal and gas, which drove a campaign of tax-delay-and-destroy hydrocarbon energy.”

The climate ice age..oh wait..global warming...oh wait climate change is just another redistribution of wealth scam that covers up the UN’s goal of world domination.

[PGR88]

Same in California. Our grandfathers tamed the land, and built huge dams and aquaducts to help man smooth out the natural cycles - and they did so efficiently, with minimal natural impact. They planned future needs as well, to allow the system to go from 10 million users to 40 million users.

Now 60-70 years later, we are at the limits of that system - and the Regressive politicians running the system allow ideology to trump everything else.

[rktman]

Thank goodness the teenagers are on board with saving the planet. One pile of tossed debris at a time if that’s what it takes. The silence of their tone deafness is astounding. Stoopider and stoopider.

[Erik Latranyi]

If they cannot scare the population into surrendering power, then they will topple the economies of the west and claim it is a failure of capitalism.

This is very well planned and coordinated.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Erik Latranyi :".. they will topple the economies of the west and claim it is a failure of capitalism."

That is why the Australian dollar trades at $0.67 of the American dollar.
Rich with natural resources, but the "Greenies" resist fossil fuels.

[Rappini]

Sounds to me like they drank the cool-aid.

[Reaganez]

Australia had some of the highest electricity prices in the world. Very reliable and very expensive. They way over built the grid for a population explosion that never happened.

The neither nor plan that has resulted from fighting between coal/gas on the one hand and renewables/grid storage on the other created major blackouts two years ago. The last two years electricity prices have been falling in Australia.

[Gay State Conservative]

Although I haven't traveled the entire country the parts of Australia I did visit feature some civilization within about 50 miles of the coasts but everything farther inland is just EMPTY!

Seems to me that power delivery there is particularly challenging.