Oh for god's sake. All the usual suspects sitting in a row blaming renewable energy all the while the most gas resource rich country in the world looks like having to import gas to serve its homes and businesses and energy companies.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-24/having-spent-200b-to-export-lng-is-australia-about-to-import/8055164

All because successive governments of either stripe were so beholden to unrestricted markets they let big multinational companies plunder this nation's abundant gas supplies and tie them up for many years to come.

The Americans banned energy exports for over 30 years to protect their homes and business. Not our lot of mongrels though. Too enamoured by fossil fuel dollars they have failed us miserably. Now, to hide their absolute dereliction of duty, they are sending their sycophants out to bash renewables.

Gas was always regarded as a bridging resource to a renewable future. That has been stripped from us in this country and we are reaping the consequences.

A pox on the lot.

Dear Steele,

Please don't ever leave this forum.

Your posts are the breath of fresh air that is
so needed around here. Thank You.

I think the greens want to take us back to the age of candles.

SM, I suggest the majority of those who you speak of are either non working 'tree huger s' or so highly paid that they are unaware of the rising costs of living in general.

Dear Foxy,

We have both had the occasion to take sabbaticals from OLO, and I do recognise a certain combativeness in my returned persona that I'm uncomfortable with, but in the end we are both back at it.

If truth be known I'm probably not that far removed from many of the OLO regulars. Being white, male, over 50 and showing increasing signs of cantankerousness I would probably just agree to disagree if we were having a yarn in a pub. There are one or two I would give a miss but on the whole they are not a bad bunch and the anonymity of the forum gives them a place to revel in a pugnaciousness they probably don't exhibit elsewhere.

You my dear Foxy have for the most part remained even tempered and even handed despite serious provocation and the place is far better for you presence so do hang around as long as you can.

Dear rehctub,

I really don't get you sometimes. Unlike Shadow Minister you are not a fully wedded on party hack and you have shown you are prepared to take things on face value rather than some ideological bent, so why aren't you all over this? Successive governments have sold us out big time on gas, one of the major drivers of the local economy. Australians are facing prices that are higher than what our gas sells in Japan and all you are focused on is whacking the Greens?

It was Obama who eased the ban on gas exports from the US last year and already their lawmakers are sounding warning bells on the impact on domestic prices doubling them within a year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-27/u-s-could-follow-australia-in-singing-export-blues-on-gas

It is worth a read.

The reason why Australia is so stuffed is because these big international companies locked themselves into long term contracts which has meant they are not only selling our gas at far lower prices than what we are paying here, some like Santos are having to buy up gas earmarked for domestic supply because their production fell below that of the contracts they committed to.

Cont..

Cont..

The Yanks were a lot smarter than our bunch of drop kick pollies.

“The U.S. has an added line of defense. Australian LNG exporters contract to send gas directly to foreign customers with specific destinations, while U.S. exporters only sell the right to buy U.S. gas and chill it in their plants for loading. That means if U.S. prices ever rise above those in Asia or Europe, the exports can just stop.”

Why don't we have that?

The true reason why the second gas turbine at Point Piper in SA was not available to avert blackouts there? Domestic gas shortages and resultant high prices in the world's second largest natural gas exporter, us, are playing havoc with power generators and industry.

How having a crack at the real culprits. I will even give you a name, Martin Bloody Ferguson, ex-Labour Energy Minister now deep in the pockets of Dutch Shell. You want to know who he is blaming? State governments! He says removing fracking bans would bring more gas online thus lowering domestic prices. What a self serving idiotic argument? We already produce more than any other nation and if we upped production even further it would go in exactly the same direction.

Come on mate, have a think about this. If you do I'm sure you will be as pissed off as I am, not only because of what has happened on the ground but with the pack of lies we are being fed by our leaders. We needed politicians who would look out for Australian households and businesses like they have in the US. We didn't get them and now look at us.

Jack boot john sold off gas for the next 500 years at 5 cents/ ltr to japan.