Another entirely unnecessary crisis. Everything about our energy system is running on the edge.
Despite sitting on a “lake of gas”, Victoria Australia is in danger of running out of usable gas midwinter. The AEMO is back in crisis mode (if it ever left). In Victoria gas supplies are so low, two gas power plants have been ordered to switch off to preserve some gas storage, and the AEMO is begging Queensland for extra gas supplies. There were even warnings yesterday that homes might run out of gas (though that doesn’t appear to have happened).
A bun-fight is breaking out between Australian states over gas supplies, with others grumpy that Victoria is buying their gas fired electricity, but is not exporting gas to make it. Notoriously, Victoria has also banned exploration for new gas wells, and most of its gas exports would come from offshore Commonwealth managed deposits, supposedly belonging to the whole nation, while Queensland and South Australia were digging up their own gas.
Homeowners are warned that if the gas storage underground (in a old reused gas field) falls too low, their home appliances might not work. Welcome to the first world!
When gas levels in storages fall too low, pressure may drop below the optimal range, air bubbles may form and customers may not receive their gas in a steady stream or at the correct pressure for their plant and appliances. — Australian Financial Review
If only Australia had some other energy sources to use?
Victorian Gas Basins include the Otway, Gippsland and Bass (but not the Murray) | FlowFM
It takes real genius to have an energy crisis in a nation which is the fifth biggest gas exporter in the world, the highest value coal exporter, and has the largest reserves of uranium. In the race to the bottom, Australia is burdened with more energy per capita than anywhere on Earth — and yet Big Government has succeeded, and wildly, showing that the richest nation on Earth can still be poor.
Australians are paying wildly high prices for electricity in order to stop the storms of 2100 by trying not to use two of the three assets above — while exporting all of them.
AEMO activates emergency mechanism for gas supplies
Perry Williams, The Australian
The Australian Energy Market Operator has activated its emergency gas supply guarantee mechanism for just the second time on record to help arrest shortfalls in Victoria as the nation’s electricity market lurches to a fresh crisis. Storage levels at Victoria’s underground gas storage plant, Iona, dropped to a record low and forced AEMO on Monday to put an official system security threat in place until the end of September.
Wattclarity has a graph that shows just how low the storage is at Iona — the fall from 23,000 to 10,000TJ took just ten weeks.
….
Yet strangely they didn’t see this coming until there is just two weeks to go?
Looming Vic gas shortages may hit system security, warns AEMO
The Iona gas storage facility in Victoria is on track to fall to an all-time low of just six petajoules by August 6, with the depletion of inventories leading to the risk of “total system” gas supply shortfalls for the state.
The AEMO chief will say gas storage was already rapidly depleting before winter started, with more LNG being exported from Queensland, which meant lower flows to southern states, triggering more gas to flow north to NSW sourced from Victoria’s offshore Bass Strait fields.
In a shock to bureaucrats, normal rules of supply and demand apply:
A rare cap on Victoria’s gas prices has been in place to calm the market but the move has -provided an incentive to producers to direct supplies to other states further exacerbating the tight market.
Who would have thought artificial price caps create shortages?
Australian States fight for gas
Victoria blocks gas outflows but imports power
Angela Macdonald-Smith, Australian Financial Review
Victoria is relying on other states for electricity that often comes from gas even as new rules prevent the export of spot market gas from the state to other regions, industry sources have complained.
Under rules imposed by the Australian Energy Market Operator on Tuesday, gas processed in Victoria and purchased through the spot market cannot be sent outside the state to NSW or South Australia or Queensland amid a critical shortfall that threatens to destabilise the energy system.
… one gas industry executive accused Victoria of “playing politics with gas”, with the result that customers in Queensland and NSW were being hurt.
“I don’t think Queensland is going to tolerate it for much longer,” the executive said. “They will want to secure Queensland supplies, maintain LNG export volumes and investor confidence. They will want other states to play their part in bringing on supply in future years.”
Industry sources say the $40 a gigajoule price cap that is still in place in Victoria but not in other states has contributed to the problem, as those few buyers that source gas from the spot market buy it there to access cheaper prices.
“The price cap in Victoria is creating havoc,” one said. “There is no shortage of gas; the issue is interventions upsetting the whole market.”
If Australia was using all our energy resources instead of just the politically fashionable ones, we’d have plenty of brown coal to rely on and we could save our gas for essential services. If we hadn’t banned or stopped gas exploration we’d be exporting more, making more money at bonanza prices, and helping our friends in Japan and Europe too.
If we thought carbon dioxide mattered, we’d have nuclear plants.
REFERENCES
The Petroleum Atlas of Victoria (2001) gives an overview of the regional geological and geophysical characteristics of the Otway and Gippsland basins.
Geoscience Australia provides information about national petroleum basins.
There is plenty of Gas in Australia. And as to Victoria getting Gas from Queensland there is plenty of Gas in Queensland. Blue Energy in Queensland just needs to build a gas pipeline from Blue Energy’s acreage to the existing pipeline system to make it happen. Trouble is, they don’t have the funds. Surely the Federal and State Governments could assist here to make it happen. There must be many more examples of this all around Australia.
So much for energy security and Australia only has enough refined petroleum to last around 6 weeks. And guess where the refined petroleum is mainly stored? In the USA for goodness sake.
This Country is fast becoming a Nation run by donkeys.
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The nation has been run by idiots for quite a while. – certainly since Howard and Costello were booted in favour of Rudd et al. Having four states in Labor hands as well as the Federal government, things won’t improve any time soon. The media for the most part would appear to be trying to turn NSW back to Labor as well.
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You are so right Erasmus. Not only run by idiots but they are being advised by fools. Our bureaucracy is so infested with green, young, uneducated or brainwashed fools that their advice is not only useless but dangerous. Only a monumental disaster will wake up the sheeple who then will demand change. The only real problem is to whom will they turn? A Victorian conservative leader who wants a 50% emission reduction target? We are doomed.
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Would someone who uses this word sheeple please explain how it differs from deplorables?
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Deplorables DO something that you deplore..
Sheeple just follow what they’re told.
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Just follow what they’re told? Hmmm. The usual idiom is that they would DO what they’re told, but that would be doing something you deplore, so not much difference, is it?
I asked the question because I thought there *was* an inportant difference. Hillary’s “deplorables” were people she knew would *never* be on her side. My reading of “sheeple” is ordinary people who simply go with the flow. Such people might come to our way of thinking if we could convince them to think for themselves. Name-calling is going to close minds against us. Not a win.
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RS. The word “sheeple” derived from people/sheep is a derogatory slang for those who follow ,Sheeplike, the mindless flock. These would seem to be those to the political left, Guardian readers, BLM etc who pick their politics by feel good factors, main stream news headlines and wokeism instead of actually thinking and doing any research.These would be the American Democrats and the Australian Greens or those that champion idiotic green policies.
“Deplorables” was a term Hillary Clinton coined for those others not of this persuasion ie American Republicans who actually do due diligence in their political/social ideas. Most readers of this site who are sceptics and understand the larger picture would be classed Deplorables. I would wear that moniker as a badge of honour.
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Exactly
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Erasmus – You are right of course, but Scott Morrison was elected to do sensible things yet still committed to “Net-Zero” in an abject pander to those who would never ever vote for him anyway. The Australian people rightly IMHO decided that he had to go. Better three years of misery and the prospect then of being able to vote for sanity, than three more years of insanity and no prospect of any change.
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Yes, Mike.
The people who voted for Scott Morrison did so because they still thought he was of the Right, while others, like Albanese, is labelled as being of the Left. The second part of the logic used in that decision is that the Left are all loonies with no sense of responsibility, while those of the Right at least have a grasp on reality and an understanding that actions come with something called consequences.
But that worldview, which I also shared for most of my life, is clearly false.
Left versus Right is a charade – like black versus white and Christian versus Muslim – designed to keep us occupied and fighting among ourselves.
You said it yourself, Mike. Scott Morrison “still committed to Net-Zero”.
He also presided over the Covid disaster, including the illegal forcing of untested experimental ‘vaccines’ on the Australian people and the banning of early conservative treatment of the virus, which would have saved many lives.
So, in all of the most important respects, it really doesn’t matter which ‘party’ you vote for. Here in Australia we can’t get away from a wide-reaching and damaging ‘environmental sustainability’ program (concocted by the UN), no matter who’s in The Lodge. And nearly everyone in the developed world has been subjected to coerced injecting with a ‘vaccine’ that doesn’t work and which weakens immune systems, regardless of the dominant political system they live under.
We fondly imagine we have a meaningful democratic choice. Not true!
To me at least, we’re being taken for a ride and I’m amazed that more people aren’t awake to it yet.
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You are wrong, the political spectrum using the terms left and right describe the political beliefs and positions.
Most Australians are positioned in the centre or slightly leaning left or right.
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Interested – I’m in full agreement. Re the coronavirus, I understand that in the UK at one point, the only people allowed to go to major gatherings were the vaccinated and those with a recent negative coronavirus test. As some commented – what a wonderful way to spread the virus.
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“An aspirational goal” to achieve net zero emissions subject to the development of new technology, and without damaging the economy.
The PM also refused to stop coal mining and to raise the Paris Agreement emissions target when requested to do so at COP26, including by the leaders of our major allies, UK and US.
In a recent not widely reported address to a church congregation in Perth, former PM Morrison commented that people should not trust governments or the United Nations and despite the criticism he received having been leader of an elected government he is in a position to make that recommendation. Obviously he had experienced the politics and pressures.
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Time Morrison spilled the beans a book would be a good start and top seller (if it outs this nest of blackmail and corruption)
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Run by idiots or being run down deliberately ?
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The NSW Liberals don’t need any help from the media to turn them into Labor, they are doing a fine job themselves. The Turnbull acolyte Matt ‘Green’ is pulling the strings from Treasury.
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“There’s plenty of gas.”
I’ve told this before.
My father had an uncle at Roma in Queensland. He said that there was plenty of oil at Roma, but nobody honest enough to find it.
Fifty years later Australia’s first oil field was opened up at Moonie, just up the road.
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Relatives with pioneering history in that area of Queensland, Roma District in particular, told me years ago about capped oil wells belonging to the no longer existing Commonwealth Oil Refineries, Federal Government.
They were capped in the 1900s because Middle East oil was being extracted and transported for pricing that was not commercially viable for COR.
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Aloha! In the 1970s US Pres Carter and the greens put a “windfall profit tax” on US domestic oil producers. Companies like Chevron decided to cap their domestic producing wells because then it was cheaper for Chevron to buy oil from Saudi Arabia and ship it to the US than produce oil under the Carter regime.
Be very careful who you vote for. Here in the USA it is easy to figure out. Since Davos [possibly] owns the democrat party any name with a (D) on it means (Davos)! That means you vote for Republican(R) or Independent(I) but never Democrat! DAVOS=(D)
*[edited. Xi may own the Dems. Or Bankers. Lots of possibilities – jo]
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There is a bill in Congress right now to impose an excess profits tax on oil companies — it probably will go nowhere, but that’s the Democratic Party view of punishing success.
Biden’s war on fossil fuels and on those who produce oil and gas is failing, yet he doesn’t budge off his policies, partly because of his intellectual difficulties and partly because his left wing base demands it.
I used to own oil and gas production and I predicted 18 months ago that if Biden was elected that his policies would lead to lowering production levels. His promise of “oil will be gone by 2035” meant that capital will not back exploration, new production or new refinery capacity since Biden’s policies, if successful, will dry up the market for oil products. Why invest capital when the political position is to eliminate the product?
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It is all about economics and Moonie was a small conventional field. That’s why UNOCAL (Union Oil of California) sold Moonie and moved to Indonesia and Thiland, where they discovered the giant Attaka Field and Gulf Of Thailand fields. Moonie, after peak production in 1966, has produced 99% of its reserves. Despite extensive exploration and drilling no other fields, similar to Moonie, were found. There are always stories, normally from geological naive drillers or drilling hands, that spread rumors about large quantities oil left in the ground. But why would an oil company do that when they are after quick returns to continue exploration and drilling? Of course technology has improved these days, whereby tight reservoirs and shale beds become economic through horizontal drilling and fracturing. But don’t mention fracking!
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It’s almost impossible to build a gas pipeline. There are so many groups against such developments, and unfortunately the agricultural sector who were generally supporters have now shut the gate. There is also vast tracts of land that now cannot be “disturbed”. We are going to have to manage on current infrastructure.
Good luck with the construction of the auxiliary (and unnecessary) power transmission network needed to connect up the RE hubs, because you will be introduced to the same groups.
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That is partly because those in the gas oil communications and power sectors abused their hospitality. Acland coal mine at Oakey is a good example. If you abuse the trust, you very quickly make an enemy out of those you need the support from.
I guess a way of putting this in perspective is to say if you have a house and yard, and you let someone come in and they walk on the paths and create no damage then there is not a problem. Happy days. But if you decide to drive a car onto the front lawn and chuck a few wheelies then you very quickly get told to leave. Some of the issues with coal gas telecommunications and Electricity are, Coal dust, ground water abuse, bringing in weeds and building roads and infrastructure where it interferes with the farming operation. Many of these are easily avoided. But coal gas telcos and power companies are very large and have large legal teams and they use their financial muscle to bully and intimidate, hence the little guy says dont want any of you here ever.
They reap what they sow unfortuneatly. I have seen it many times, and been involved in sorting out solutions many times. Washing bulldozers so you dont spread weeds is a pretty simple thing to do, so is having abatement measures in place to sort out coal dust issues. But many of those companies just say stuff the farmer there is only 2 people there. Let them sue us etc. That is the problem.
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Re “Let them sue us”: The Hume Coal recent NSW Southern Highlands coal-mine application was a direct threat to everyone in the neighbourhood with a bore. In their PR, they said they would supply free water to anyone who could prove that Hume Coal had caused their bore to lose water. In other words, let them sue us. Fortunately, their application was turned down after a lengthy battle with locals, and I suspect that their attitude on water was a key element in the government decision to turn them down. The people don’t seem to get many wins like that, but at least there’s one.
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Nah, Mike.
Those Southern Highland people who own the land are all silver-tails from the city with mighty political contacts. They financially back the Coalition to the hilt.
Money talks.
Same as the backers of “renewables”. Money talks.
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As you would know when development applications and other government (State) requirements are approved certain political groups including the Greens lodge appeals in court and generally use the legal system to delay the project for as long as possible.
The Adani coal mine in NQ was delayed for well over a decade.
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“…Good luck with the construction of the auxiliary (and unnecessary) power transmission network needed to connect up the RE hubs, because you will be introduced to the same groups…” You’re dreaming mate – those “Groups” BELIEVE IN those power lines like gospel so they’ll allow it.
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Around here along the Manning there are those who display the “You can’t eat coal” stickers on their cars. I haven’t found wind and sunshine all that appetising either.
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Be careful what you wish for. You may get it. And in this case they might get get it good and hard.
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Australias Energy Commodity Resources 2022 – a report by Geoscience Australia
https://www.ga.gov.au/digital-publication/aecr2022
2 somewhat out of context, but interesting quotes from the “gas” section:
Also, it was news to me (maybe not to anyone else) but Victoria has completed a pilot project to use its brown coal to generate hydrogen for export to Japan.
https://www.hydrogenenergysupplychain.com
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On reflection, I think the quote about 16 years of production is too far removed from its context to be taken at face value – still, everyone likes a scary story!
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What kind of gas?
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There is no doubt at all that we as an evolved species have the collective intelligence, scientific and economic understanding and capacity to run a properly functioning modern society with lighting, heating and communications available.
The fact that we instead live in a frightening, collapsing world is evidence that humans are capable of incredible levels of greed, deceit, avariciousness, selfishness and maliciousness that defy understanding.
Initially it seemed that the people guiding the current ugliness were simply looking to get rich at our expense, but on reflection the aim seems to be the complete destruction of society.
It’s not just the gas or the electricity or the water; look to our failed, corrupted governments and bureaucracy.
Ring the bells, let me governor general take over.
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I was taught in my youth about a thing they called Original Sin. I never believed it. It just didn’t fit with my logic.
In my old age I see it all around me.
No logic!
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Yes, I agree Ted1. Logic has become a dated concept.
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I had heard the use of the term Original Sin but didn’t look into it.
Interesting to now look up its origin and see how it fits in.
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What you say Keith is correct but I would add one more thing-ignorance. If reporters were not ignorant they might have asked better questions and held the likes of Flannery and Viner to account. Ignorance of history is also a great stumbling block. Imagine if more people knew that the world existed before last week.
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Ever since the EU recognised Nuclear & Gas as “Green” sources of fuel for power generation and the Biden Administration in USA are losing credibility in their ability to come anywhere near winning the midterm elections, the Global Warming mob have stepped up their Panic Propaganda.
World wide there is a sudden EMERGENCY, London is burning to the ground as a result of grass fires mysteriously setting fire to a house or two, there are suddenly gas shortages in countries where it’s been said they’re returning to coal or they’ll use wood.
Anything to get “EMERGENCY “ situations declared ( USA). Victoria / Australia suddenly short of gas so lets panic & declare an emergency ( don’t forget the panic to get rid of the Covid vaccine mountain of stock).
Nobody with an IQ approaching 20 believes the globalists anymore. What a futile attempt.
Our new Labor government is well on their way to losing another election due to the globalist BS about global warming & Co2.
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Gas produces sell their product to the highest bidder. That is market capitalism in action. Remember that their responsibility is to maximise returns to shareholders.
Of course, in the People’s Republic of Western Australia this doesn’t happen as the socialist government intervened to keep 15% of export gas for the local market.
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Yet on the ground the free market is operating.
‘The Western Australian retail gas market became fully contestable in 2004. This means gas companies can compete in the marketplace for all Western Australian gas customers, including residential customers.’ (WA.gov)
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No, it a Liberal premier, Sir Charles Court, that made domestic gas reservation part of any deal for the gas producers. It was later enshrined in legislation by Carpenter’s Labor govt.
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Graeme #4
Good to read that someone else also knows what really happened re the 15% allocation of gas to WA. Charles Court’s. Liberal government in 1979 had what was essentially a Gentlemen’s Agreement with Woodside that in 2004 under the Labor government of Alan Carpenter was formally legislated
40
A rare example of both side of politics doing what’s best for a State.
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Gas producers sell their product to the highest bidder that they are allowed to sell to, absent the pre-existing political obligations that distort the value of their product by actions of progressive/socialist/environmentalist politicians.
That would be politically distorted markets in action. Remember, the politicians responsibility is to obtain, maintain, expand, and consolidate, Power, to their allies and benefactors, who are their shareholders of fact, but not to the people they ostensibly represent who are their legal obligation. What you refer to is a kleptocracy or oligarchy.
It isn’t that a socialist government reserved 15% of the energy for the local market out of the goodness of their hearts or of their obligations, rather because it is a fig leaf to cover their theft, ineptitude, and greed.
Socialism only provides equality of misery, bought by denuding actual citizens of life and property. Progressives tend to forget the history of their ideology: 100 million dead, millions more degraded and enslaved.
It wasn’t socialism that freed the world from poverty and slavery, it was capitalism. That capitalism has been perverted is no excuse for claiming its failure when its optimization was precluded by the greed of elected officials.
Your “drive by” shot is disproved by history. Try again.
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‘Remember that their responsibility is to maximise returns to shareholders.’
Yeah, that is true. Australians with Super Funds are technically better off.
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i thought their responsibility was to ensure diversity and inclusion.
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oh, and action on klimate khange.
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And don’t forget how in 2002 Howard oversaw Australia giving away much of our gas supply at world’s cheapest prices on a bizarre 30 year contract for which the clowns who wrote the contract forgot to (or deliberately failed to) include any provisions for inflation or market prices or even an exit strategy.
In 2015 the Chicomms were paying one third what Australia was for Australian gas. No doubt it is even less at today’s high prices.
This seems to be have been almost written out of history as few or no people apart from me seem to mention it.
https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/how-australia-blew-its-future-gas-supplies-20170928-gyqg0f.html
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Every instance in which dumbass politicians get into the free market, be it face masks or ships full of coal or gas, you can rest assured of a disaster whether it occurs within one week or 5 years of that interference!!
And we keep voting for more dumbass politicians. Look at the present mob!
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How to make a million dollars trading with China?
Start with two million dollars.
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In Vicdanistan gas exploration is prohibited in
a large number of areas and fracking is even prohibited under the State Constitution.
https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/as-made/acts/constitution-amendment-fracking-ban-act-2021
And the Liberals (pretend conservative party) have set even more extreme “climate change” objectives than the present far-Left government of Comrade Dictator Andrews, who almost certainly will be re-elected.
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So, am I a bad person if I wish that we would suffer blackouts, brownouts, depletions, shortages, hardship and strife on account of the fake climate hysteria?
It would be so satisfying, but at a great cost in human happiness. If only that cost could be mostly borne by those who vote such hysteria into place, as a learning tool.
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Common sense won’t stop the anthropogenic global warming fraud.
Only very deep suffering will (or might, most people by now are extremely dumbed down, possibly more so in Australia than elsewhere).
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Refer to comment #8.1 above!!
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Bobby, it doesn’t matter what you wish for.
It’s coming anyway. In spades.
Buy a genset. Get a big load of fire-wood stored up the back-yard. Build a gas-producer.
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Seems that all the Geniuses that created this dilemma have a Labor/Green hue! And the gutless man that believes in miracles will go down as the conductor of the band! So much for prayer towers!
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The ugliness pervades both sides of the political miasma.
For decades, the Libl Parti has spent most of its time and energy rearranging things for their own benefit here in NSW.
Greed is universal.
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Yes, NSW is dominated by the so-called “moderates” which is really the far Left of the party.
For example, Matt Kean is so extreme on Green issues he would put most Greens, Teals or Labor members to shame.
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It was happening long before Matt arrived.
Their big money spinner was to rezone state owned property which was then purchased by an insider at an auction that they forgot to advertise.
By dragging out the process at the end the public had forgotten that it was publicly owned.
Money everywhere.
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Yes. Like the Vales Point Power Station that was sold for $1 million and then immediately valued at close to $730 million.
Had I known it was for sale for $1 million, I would have purchased it myself.
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Keith NSW State Government has been dominated by Labor since WW2.
31
Best to leave power generation to engineers.
40
LINO left – Liberals In Name Only
40
The Liberal Party has out served its value.
We need a true Conservative Party in Australia.
Choice is what the voter doesn’t have under the current arrangements.
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In Melbourne, Victoria it has been 1C (34F) yesterday morning and this morning.
I wonder if the gas supply and electricity supply will stand up or collapse?
Also, in Vicdanistan, the dictator is offering an incentive to people of A$2600 (US$1790) to disconnect from gas.
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All the climate catastrophe chatter from Minister Bowen and Minister D’Ambrosio will ensure that no one will invest in gas development in Victoria, so say bye bye to more industries.
The only investors will be those assured of government subsidies.
Has the penny dropped? “Mr Albanese said Labor’s position would remain that new coal and gas projects could proceed if they stacked up financially and passed environmental approvals, with the future of the industry to be dependent on international demand.”
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Except for people physiologically adapted to living near the North Pole, most humans are much more heat tolerant than cold tolerant so keeping warm is far more important than keeping cool.
Can someone therefore please explain to me without gas for heating or gas and coal for electricity, it is possible to produce the energy required for people to keep warm?
I know the fantasy is for windmills, solar and Big Batteries, but could someone please explain to me how this would be done in REALITY bearing in mind the staggering number of windmills, solar panels and infeasibly large Big Batteries that would be required to replace existing power production?
Also, I didn’t mention hydro, noting that in Australia the former (but waiting in the wings) chief advisor to the Australian Government claims it will never rain again enough to fill up the dams, and the Left are at war against hydro as well. In Kaliforniastan, in the middle of a drought and power shortage they are actually removing hydro dams.
Nuclear is, of course, verboten.
Perhaps one of the resident warmists could “please explain” where future energy is meant to come from without coal, gas, nuclear and real hydro (not SH2). Do we do as they are starting to do in Germany, chopping down the forests to burn?
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David: It is simple. There is a big pond of electricity which we can draw from anytime so long as we add some to the pond at some other time. Stupid? Yes. Idiotic? Yes. But this must be what all those people who believe in renewables must
thinkbelieve.So those Liberals like Mad Matt, Guy Waffles and Simon BigIam who also believe this nonsense and promote it, will find out the hard way that WEATHER Dependent sources don’t actually “work all the time” and like those other ‘believers’ (who were voted out in favour of the TEALs) will find themselves unemployed when the tide turns.
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Just to add to your comments, the original renewable energy target was a “trial basis” and set at 2 per cent by the Howard Coalition Government as one of several initiatives after they signed the IPCC Kyoto Japan Agreement on emissions reduction target, Australia achieved and exceeded that target, however renewable energy was insignificant back in 1997 and even included wave generators projects that failed.
After the 2010 election when Gillard Labor formed a minority alliance government after effectively being defeated by the Abbott Coalition Opposition Labor announced the carbon tax they had earlier denied would be introduced, and not so well publicised their renewable energy surcharge also added to our electricity bills, plus the GST on top of all charges, so 10+10 per cent + 10 per cent added to our electricity bills. And they announced their over 30 per cent Renewable Energy Target with incentive subsidies for private sector investors.
The Federal RET was created to encourage the State Governments to support the transition and the then Labor States SA, VIC and NSW, QLD took a different approach, proceeded to privatise the publicly owned and operated power stations and transmission lines. The sales were completed by Coalition State Governments but the sales were by then completed or negotiations well underway.
It is often ignored that States (and Territories) have responsibility for electricity supply, water supply and most of the services we use, and also States manage and approve development applications and the other requirements.
For example the Morrison Coalition Government proposed 4 gas generators with 2 in NSW and 1 each for QLD and VIC, only 1 for the NSW Hunter Valley has been approved so far. They also proposed 1 coal fired power station for NTH QLD and offered to underwrite the financing for a private sector investor but so far QLD Labor has not supported the proposal.
Snowy 02 pumped hydro project is a Federal initiative as was the original Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme however to proceed required State Government development approval and other permission. The Federal Government agreed to buy back State shares in Snowy Hydro as part of the approval process terms which added to the original cost estimate by 6 billion dollars.
Very clearly the RET is now supported by the new left of the Coalition parties as well as by Labor and of course Greens,
30
All of the schemes are based on “and then a miracle happens’.
Problem solved
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Another genuine scientist has died and he provided the proper data that should’ve ended their climate change idiocy nearly 30 years ago.
R.I.P Dr Patrick Michaels, one of the qualified scientists who had the courage to stand up to the army of con merchants and fra-dsters.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/07/20/the-end-of-an-era-vale-patrick-michaels/
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Thanks Neville, for reminding us about the passing of Dr Michaels – an irreplaceable loss to the REAL scientific community and to the fight for truth in science. (What a world we live in now, where having to ‘fight for truth in science’ is even recognised as an aspect of legitimate debate.)
I was privileged to attend one of Dr Michaels’ lectures in Melbourne a few years ago. And just as it always was with Dr Bob Carter’s well-written opinions, it was a refreshing pleasure to hear a clear presentation of climate data and a logical analysis of what it actually means – instead of the usual ‘climate emergency’ claptrap.
Who can understand the gods, when disgraceful reprobates like Michael Mann, Flim-Flam Flannery, and Albert Gore are permitted to live on amongst us while genuine scientists like Dr Michaels, are taken away?
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Australia hasn’t tarred and feathered a politician since Labor Party extremist John Keith McDougall in 1902.
And it shows.
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It’s a gas, man. Jumpin Jack Flash it’s a gas, gas, gas.
Or words to that effect. How will this end?
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“Another entirely unnecessary crisis.”
I am not so sure.
The incredible position of being energy super rich, major energy exporters and being starved to death at home might sink in. It might wake a few up.
We Australians, we Victorians live in such luxury of energy excess that it might take a substantial long crisis of supply to wake
people up to the fact that shutting down our electricity, dismantling working power stations, installing useless windmills even creating a completely unnecessary AEMO, shutting down coal, stopping exploration, pumping water uphill at great cost in energy, stopping everything to ‘save the world’ requires a level of idiocy that is breathtaking.
What will the teals do when they cannot charge their electric cars? Connect their solar panels to their cars? Good luck with that. Maybe three days in summer and a week in winter, if you don’t use it for anything else.
It’s like the Irish in the potato famine, with a record crop of wheat for their English landlords but not enough money after paying rent on their own land to buy food for themselves when the free potatoes stopped. Except we are doing it to ourselves because of absolutely idiotic and completely and obviously untrue “Climate Science”.
In Victoria we have hundreds of years of free brown coal. And we used to generate our own gas from it. No longer. We even have huge gas reserves we can use directly, but it is forbidden by Daniel Andrews Labor government. We are on a mission from God to save the planet.
We are not even allowed use our own gas and coal. By our own elected governments. And taxed heavily and secretly in our electricity bills and the billions given for nothing to foreign owners of subsidized windmills and solar farms on our land. If you rated countries by intelligence, Singapore would be genius and Australia would be idiotic.
390
And Nett Zero is the greatest crock I have heard in a lifetime. Humans cannot be nett zero. It’s impossible. As we head for 9 billion humans, we output CO2. We breathe it out, 5-14%. Our animals, our gardens , our cars, our holidays, our computers, everything we do outputs CO2. So who came up with this Nett Zero? Pretend we don’t exist? Crouch and hide? Breathe slowly?
Why is CO2 so bad? Just tell me. As far as I can see there has been no noticeable warming, the planet is rapidly cooling, the seas are not rising and the polar bears are fine. So after 34 years of this, what exactly is the problem? Someone? Nine years to what exactly? Extinction? Without CO2 life on earth would cease. All the plants would be dead. And then everything else. Who said 0.025% was the ideal level? What madman?
And a CO2 increase is explained simply by warming oceans stuffed with 98% of all CO2 is very good, essential for food and plants. Green cover has increased by 14% since 1990, the same as the CO2 increase. What is bad about that? And doesn’t it contradict the very idea of Nett Zero? We don’t have to plant trees to reduce CO2, they are planting themselves. And people get carbon credits and cash for planting trees? A forest the size of Brazil just planted itself for $0.
CO2 is not just plant food. It is the plant. The whole plant and nothing but the plant. Trees are just CO2 and water. So are humans.
But our coal is going to China, our RET cash is leaving the country, our gas is being sold overseas and our iron ore is going to CHina which produces more than half of the world’s CO2 despite being only 1/5th of the population and no one says a thing.
It’s about time the whole grid shut down for a month or two. And no one leaves the country except by rowboat. No heaters or airconditioners or refrigerators or freezers. We have declared war on ourselves.
Then see who gets elected and what they think of Nett Zero. Presuming of course we can part run the whole country and all of Canberra with just solar panels and windmills.
100
I don’t know what a “global reset” would look like. If I had to guess it would involve turning peoples lives upside down and then make them unable to live in their environs. Too cold, too hot, too broke, too hungry, too tired, too dizzy from all the change.
Shake them up hard and then
seecatch where the pieces fall.Let’s start calling people “resetters” shall we? “Deniers” was shooting too low. Resetters are the people that need to be cancelled.
130
“Resetters”? More like Redsetters as they are loopy dogs………………
60
While Western Europe has had a short heatwave, Eastern Europe has had very cold weather conditions.
And Alice Springs has just had below zero c morning temps from 3rd of July to the 17th of July 2022. That’s 15 days straight and beats the old record of 11 days set back in 1976. See BOM link.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/dwo/IDCJDW8002.latest.shtml
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And for a chart of interest All-Time Cold Records Fall In Australia http://www.lavoisier.com.au
60
I find it interesting when looking at records
https://wmo.asu.edu/content/world-meteorological-organization-global-weather-climate-extremes-archive
On a supposedly warming planet that records for extremes of heat are much older than records for extremes of cold.
Meh, numbers.
30
I afraid people will not learn until the shelves are empty, no energy to heat their homes, no jobs
90
You can see the heatwave versus the coldwave conditions of western Europe and Eastern Europe at this link. Thanks to Dr Roy Spencer for providing the full European map. Like I’ve said before their co2 molecule works like magic and can cause both very warm and cold conditions at the same time. SARC
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/07/20/hump-day-hilarity-eu-smack-in-the-face-heatwave-edition/
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You get a much better idea that it’s just freak weather if you play the daily sequence here.
https://climatereanalyzer.org/reanalysis/daily_maps/?dm_id=world-ced&wm_id=t2anom&year=2022
20
It’s the same for coal in south west Australia collie.
They can’t dig it up fast enough to keep stockpile.
Looming disaster.
80
Macha, I’m always interested in hearing from people who know what is going on in Collie or WA. There is very little commentary outside “the official” narrative.
10
Cut the interconnects and let the States wallow in their own glorious wokeness.
150
Part of the problem is that the people making the decisions to starve us of energy will not themselves suffer.
130
Just as in other wars, in this case the war against energy, when/if the Sheeple finally wakeup and work out what’s going on, they won’t take kindly to collaborators. In this case, those collaborators would include the “useful idiots” of the Left, but by no means restricted to them.
51
The marketing term is “climate change” but the actual purpose is a war against the non-Elites’ access to energy, food and rights to their own body (covid) and a war against freedom of speech and freedom in general.
61
I don’t know why the Greens and leftists don’t like gas, after all it is natural.
71
Its still a fossil fuel.
24
That is a matter of debate.
71
Every time you hear the term fossil fuel in the media you’re being lied to. It’s one of those misnomers like “renewable energy”. Apparently in 1892 at the Geneva convention J. D Rockefeller paid scientists to use the term “fossil fuel”. Old J.D was a clever man. What he wanted people to perceive was that oil was fossil derived and so “scarce”. This allowed a world price for oil to be set and the idea that there are limited supplies of the commodity. What’s true? Oil is the second most prevalent liquid on earth (water most prevalent). It certainly doesn’t come from fossils or dinosaurs (or anything close )and some argue it is being regenerated or produced faster than we can use it.
61
The thing is, before motor vehicles displaced horses for transport, one quarter of the agricultural land in the US had to be used for growing feed for those horses. Then there was the manure problem in the cities, leading to flies spreading disease, and so on. That’s why in those days they did have epidemics. Now, not really. Fake Mexican beer virus pandemics don’t count.
Fact checkers are now trying to deflect from the Rockefeller story and are saying the term fossil fuel originated in the 17th century! Must be over target…
They want to imply scarcity to keep the price high.
21
So is coal. In Victoria’s lignite (brown coal) you can even see fossil trees.
I’m not sure that your typical Green/Leftist actually knows where coal or gas come from.
91
just the wrong kind of biomass
71
Gas?
Out of a bottle.
Like milk.
And, Kool-aid.
40
It’s all a bit depressing isn’t it and nothing is really surprising. But back to basics, Australia has a low population and enormous energy and mineral reserves. We should have almost give -away energy prices and lots of industry feeding off that low price input. Quatar apparently exports similar amounts of gas to Australia. From their gas exports they gain $22 billion in revenue / year as a result. Whereas Australia only gains a fraction of that potential revenue. We are so poorly served by our politicians also. As pointed out by a number of other correspondents Victoria has a ban on gas exploration imposed by both major political parties. You cant just blame Daniel Andrews because the Nationals (of the LNP) also imposed their “lock the gate” policy years ago. They thought there would be votes in it.
110
Maybe Super Dan can build a new LNG import terminal in Victoria in the next two weeks! 😃
Watch Super Dan bend steel pipe with his bare hands! See Super Dan weld steel joins with one superhot breath! He hammers in rivets with his bare fists. Super Dan leaps 50 storey buildings and wins elections with one finger. No virus can stop him. No opposition leader can touch him. Victoria has never seen a politician like Super Dan.
The last sentence is certainly true.
51
#idontstandwithDan
31
He can’t be that good as he managed to fall down a flight of stairs. Or was he pushed?
21
Was listening to a Barnaby Joyce interview the other day about Australia’s energy market. The man likes a good analogy when it comes to different subjects- I once heard him comparing the water dynamics of the Murray Darling River system to tipping a bucket of water into a corner of a carpeted room. Very effective. In the most recent interview he was highlighting the stupidity of the NEM being divided into 5 min segments but comparing it to a car. How the renewables were supplying electricity when that mythical car was coasting downhill – and so the running costs were cheaper. It would seem we do have some politicians who understand the workings of our electricity grid. But, when in government they seem powerless to fix its problems. Which indicates to me all this policy is being run by public servants and bureaucrats.
110
I like the comment that wind turbines are like motor cars that are guaranteed to run 2.1 days a week but with no guarantee as to which days.
80
Imagine the irony, Victoria running out of gas.
Let them eat cake, serves ’em right for continually voting for their resident clown, Dopey Dan.
62
see this sort of silyl comment quite often
a good chunk of them didnt note for Dan, what do they deserve?
bit like 65% of us didnt vote Labor either, but here we are. Feel like you are getting what you deserve on the Federal front?
71
“It takes real genius to have an energy crisis in a nation which is the fifth biggest gas exporter in the world, the highest value coal exporter, and has the largest reserves of uranium. In the race to the bottom, Australia is burdened with more energy per capita than anywhere on Earth — and yet Big Government has succeeded, and wildly, showing that the richest nation on Earth can still be poor.”
Don’t worry, we have all the geniuses we need to achieve energy poverty in a land of plenty.
120
Ronin
Re “Don’t worry, we have all the geniuses we need to achieve energy poverty in a land of plenty.”
I hope our “wokaramas” don’t take this as a challenge
“Anything you can spend we can spend bigger”
“$87 Billion Climate Spending Madness in Calgary”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kAGWQ6wWyY
20
Net zero emissions, note academic advisory council members include Professsors Ian Plimer and Peter Ridd
https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2022/03/Kelly-Net-Zero-Progress-Report.pdf?mc_cid=3de10e3d7a&mc_eid=4961da7cb1
30
I haven’t heard of Australia being referred to as “the smart country” or “the lucky country” in recent years.
There’s a reason for that…
71
The Lucky Country is the title of a book and lucky means a wealthy country despite most of the politicians elected to represent we the people.
Donald Horne is the author.
I worry that sovereignty of our nation has effectively been handed to United Nations officials based on UN Treaties and Agreements legislated into law here by Federal and State governments coupled to regulations, red, green and black tape. Our elected representatives, for example, must ask the UN for permission to create aircraft flight paths for the new under construction International Airport at Badgerys Creek, Western Sydney. Just in case world heritage (UN registered National Parks that used to be State Forests and lands) areas are adversely impacted, according to the UN “experts”.
61
I worry about that too, but it may not be the UN itself in charge. Who controls the UN?
51
Davos! The build back better mantra was the UN focus on their 75th Anniversary!
https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/un-75-now-time-%E2%80%9Cbuild-back-better
31
Jo many years ago I learnt that soon after the UN was established, and for very honourable reasons and purposes by good people who wanted to avoid another WW2 and consequences, the UN was infiltrated by leftist groups being groups following the late 1800s Marxism based Fabian Society of the UK (see Australian Fabian Society today and in other countries) and those infiltrators realised that the UN was a perfect launching base for their “new world order” objectives.
One of their comrades was Australian Labor Government Attorney General Evatt, a lawyer, and he handed the UN a plan to organise treaties and agreements, as many as could be created, to enable like minded governments in member nations to get around constitutional laws, for example using legislation in parliaments and regulations with no referendum to ask the people to vote, to impose UN policies. UN Agenda 21 – Sustainability, Lima Protocol to gradually transfer manufacturing industry to UN rated developing nations and later emissions reduction via IPCC Kyoto and Paris Agreements, and many others.
President Trump addressed the UN in New York and expressed his concern about the expansion of the many UN organisations that were planned when the UN was established and warned the UN to downsize and get back to what was intended, and to stop interfering in the sovereignty of member nations. He referred during his address to discussions with UN leaders earlier about these matters. Later he made a joke about the funding the US contributes to the UN and questioned the value for money of that funding and commented that maybe removing the UN tenant from their headquarters and turning it into a casino hotel would be better value for the US. And as we know, President Trump would not allow the US Government to sign the IPCC Paris Agreement.
So how is the UN controlled, or is the UN managed by influential high wealth individuals, and why have elected politicians in sovereign nations cooperated?
It would be very interesting to hear what President Trump knows about this subject.
30
POTUS Trump’s first UN address
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUPcEYik2Oc
10
Thumbs up from me. My point was also that President Xi, as well as perhaps the WEF, perhaps billionaires like Gates, perhaps the bankers… there are many potential power-players, and these unaudited, unelected bodies are easy targets.
30
DM
It still works with a slight modification – you just add “/s”
10
Perhaps because that Australia the book was referring to has gone. Horne was an intellectual and he loathed the overt masculine anti intellectual posturing of the Aussie working class. To him Australia was an enclave on the outskirts of the world populated by low intelligence people who thought too highly of themselves, but doing well due to enormous resources and some other good social factors Horne admits to quite early in the book from memory.
But Australia is no longer that remote enclave, a servant of the Empire it’s worldly purpose. Rather it is a country longing to be a major world player. So keen to be a world player it swims on gas but experiences shortages as it exports it all. So keen, a tiny enclave throws away it’s cheap reliable energy because of global atmosphere.
So that country of Horne’s scorn is gone, and so the reference has also gone by the wayside.
20
Curious that dearth has been induced in so many key commodities simultaneously worldwide as if an outbreak of global mismanagement has spontaneously arisen.
41
Hi Serp.
My interpretation is that the mismanagement problem hasn’t really arisen as spontaneously as you suggest.
I started saying it years ago, in a state of frustrated disgust: “You can’t make this many mistakes … by mistake!”
But I didn’t really comprehend the depth and the breadth of the deliberate nature of the worldwide governmental ‘mismanagement’ until relatively recently.
Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum (WEF) makes no secret of its goal and the former members of its Global Young Leaders program – including for example Bill Gates, Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, Jacinda Ardern, and Boris Johnson – have all been doing everything possible to bring that to fruition.
[Interestingly, Bill Gates is now the single largest owner of U.S. farmland – 242,000 acres in 18 states. And the next 9 biggest farmland owners on the list are all billionaires too.]
They chant in unison that they’re looking to “Build Back Better” and they’re reassuring us that “You’ll Own Nothing And You’ll Be Happy”.
But before you can build anything back, you have to demolish the previous structure – hence the increasing provocation of farmers in Europe by their leaders; the destruction of scores of food production and processing facilities in the United States in the past 18 months; the economic and personal devastation of the COVID catastrophe over the last 2 years; and this kind of never-ending energy fiasco resulting from the deliberate distortion of climate science. (Just a few examples.)
The goal is evidently a financial crash and widespread social collapse, resulting in billions of people clamouring to be led to salvation.
And the WEF (Billionaires Club) are just the people to step in and help.
But it’ll be strictly on THEIR terms.
With everyone’s savings wiped out – yet again, but this time thoroughly(!) – your food and shelter will be provided courtesy of the WEF’s New World Order global government. You’ll own nothing. You’ll rent everything .. from them.
And with the abolition of cash and the possible introduction of a global digital currency, any question of personal monetary wealth will be heavily dependent upon your social credit score – i.e. how well you obey orders – and whether you’ve had the required number of ‘vaccine’ shots.
The only bit of the WEF mantra I don’t understand is the “.. And You’ll Be Happy” part. Unless, the brain fog from all the spike protein injections will make us too stupid to realise how much we’ve lost.
20
If only the woke Australian media journalists tracked down, chased, harassed and publicly shamed those politicians who are destroying our nations energy security, the same way they tracked down, chased, harassed and publicly shamed a spectator who disgraced himself on top of a sports stadium roof?
30
Is using natural gas indoors unventilated dangerous?
20
Only if you breathe it in :).
20
Aloha! Before I lived in Perth, West Australia I lived in Venezuela. When I moved to Australia I was glad to be in a country where I could have the lights on all day and not have to wait until after 2pm to take a shower. That was 1975! Two of the most oil rich countries in the world where one is run by marxist miscreants you voted for. In Venezuela nobody really votes its a military junta. Welcome to Caracas!
70
Last week a power station operator cheerfully told me that NSW will “fall-over” in the next few years, – meaning a unit will trip out and that will send a ripple through the grid which will knock it off 50Hz so other units will trip out as a protection mechanism. It’s possible that NSW will “go black” and we only have a few units with sufficient self rebooting power. A 5 day NSW black-out is likely.
The beauty of this would be that everyone will be screaming for a new coal unit to be built once the power comes back on and the “greenies” and pollies will be hiding under their beds trying to avoid the press.
I’m buying a 24 volt Nickle Iron battery and have started raising my header tank so I can have better tap pressure. Last week I fitted a big wood-burning cooker. Buying 44s of diesel is next on the list. It’s going to be “every man for himself”.
80
Diesel is not good for long term storage. Summer diesel has more wax in it than winter diesel and if you use the summer version on a cold winter morning the you may find the temperature is lower than the cloud point of the diesel and wax will block your filters and fuel lines
40
There are various additives that increase the storage life of diesel fuel and also a similar range for petrol, they add at least one year to storage depending on the storage conditions, temperature range for example.
The ADF use these additives.
10
I should have added that I have used petrol additives for years to keep 160 litres of fuel fresh in the stainless steel fuel tank on my trailer boat and have not had a problem with fuel.
Well before I started using the additive I made a mistake, returning from a three day camping on board boat fishing trip and tired I stopped at a service station to top up the fuel tank (it took 90 litres to refill) and used the E10 pump by mistake. Even with 90 litres mixed with 70 litres of premium unleaded and not using the boat for about one year (I moved interstate) the engine would start and idle but cut out when the throttle was opened to increase revs. The ethanol had caused expensive to repair damage to the fuel pump and fuel lines.
I have a small amount of diesel in storage but with additive, I also use additive (petrol additive) in petrol for lawnmower and other garden equipment.
00
Why does Australia not purchase a few Power Ships from Turkey?
They seem to be plug and play and available on short lead times.
https://karpowership.com/en/karpowership
https://karpowership.com/es/karpowership-sa-appointed-as-preferred-bidder-on-the-rmipppp
30
Karpowership ..
Do they burn oil ( bunker fuel) ?
If so, I can’t imagine the States ever using such a thing, unless the Yarra froze over.
20
Mullumhillbilly
How does the Karpowership work?
The advantage that I can see is that it has a very short lead time.
Dock it somewhere convenient, plug it into a gas or other supply and plug the power output into the electrical grid and within weeks of ordering a Power Ship you can get going.
Alternatively – for interests sake – not that I am recommending these….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_floating_nuclear_power_station
A few pictures of one of the Turkish ships (non nuclear).
https://karpowership.com/en/#khan-class
30
The name is a bit close to kapow. At first I thought it might be a new brand of lithium battery powered bus.
30