World News – AU – It is time to fight for alternatives to the « gas recovery » scam

Several detailed studies have now shown that the Scott Morrison administration’s « gas-fueled economic recovery » plan is a fraud. It won’t create many jobs, it won’t cut energy prices but it will increase greenhouse gas emissions.

One on 15. A study by the Grattan Institute published on November found that the companies that would benefit the most “only contribute about zero. 1% of the gross domestic product and only employ a little more than 10. 000 people « .

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The Grattan study also found that the gas recovery plan would not lower energy prices. “The east coast has already burned most of its inexpensive gas and won’t go back to the good old days of low prices, making gas an increasingly expensive source of energy. ”

« With Australia’s coal-fired power plants retiring in the coming decades, it would be more expensive to replace them with gas than to switch to renewable energies like wind and solar. ”

A study by the Australia Institute from Jan.. November drew similar conclusions. It has been found that 82% of Australia’s gas production is for export. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry uses twelve times as much gas as the entire manufacturing industry and more than twice as much as private households.
Richie Merzian, director of AI’s climate and energy program, said the government’s claim to create jobs in manufacturing « by giving money to the gas industry » was really about « only giving money to the gas industry ». .

“Manufacturing jobs declined for decades when cheap gas was abundant in Australia, and then declined further as gas production tripled over the past decade. It’s hard to think of a less effective way to create jobs in manufacturing than giving money to the gas industry, ”he said.

Gas contributes 19% to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions – 14% from combustion and 5% from « fugitive emissions » that occur during production, processing and transportation.

However, these numbers underestimate the problem of « diffuse emissions » according to the. December published Passing Gas by the Climate Council: Why renewable energies are the future.

When one of the three most important fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – is extracted, significant greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane) are released even before the fuel is burned.

« In the 2018 calendar year, the Australian gas industry released at least half a million tons of unburned methane directly into the atmosphere, released seven and a half million tons of carbon dioxide directly and produced another six and a half tons – half a million tons of carbon dioxide as a result of flaring, » the study found firmly.

These fugitive emissions have been significantly underestimated as the industry’s official estimates of emissions « ultimately are based on assessments carried out decades ago in another continent at a time when the unconventional gas industry was still in its infancy ». .

Until recently, virtually all Australian climate assessments classified the effects of methane on global warming as 25 times worse than carbon dioxide. However, the latest studies show that methane is “up to 40 times more effective over a period of 100 years” and “100 times more effective” over a period of 20 years. .
With conventional gas reserves running low, future gas production is more likely to come from unconventional gas – coalbed gas, shale gas, and dense gas – which often requires « fracking » – the use of hazardous chemicals that pose a serious threat to underground water reserves.

Before Morrison announced gas recovery (designed by a special committee led by former mining CEO Neville Power), gas projects on the east coast were in trouble due to rising production costs and higher gas production in other countries.

The government’s grand scheme now looks little more than another expensive corporate bailout.
Alternative ideas for a busy plan to turn Australia away from fossil fuel extraction, use and export came together swiftly, driven by significant technological advances in renewable energy generation and storage.

Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) launched its Million Jobs Plan in June. It turned out that 1. In a five year plan, 8 million jobs could be created to restart Australia as a low carbon economy.

These jobs would be created through investments in renewable energy (202. 000 working years, ie an average of 202. 000 people work per year); Energy efficiency of houses and other buildings through retrofitting and new construction (935. 000 working years); better local transport and bike paths (138. 000 working years); Greening of production (215. 000 working years); Land use and regeneration (200. 000 working years); Recycling (78. 000 working years); and education, training and research (10. 000 working years).

Many of these jobs could be created in regions where jobs in the fossil fuel industry are dwindling. There is a special chapter that goes into detail about the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

The programs for ‘green’ houses and other buildings would create the most jobs (159. 000 in the construction phase and another 30. 000 in ongoing maintenance), and most of that could begin once the investment is made.

It has been estimated that retrofitting 2. 5 million households over five years to make them net-zero energy emitters would require an annual investment of $ 15 billion (only 25. 000 US dollars per house). .

Governments could for only 273. Build $ 000 per home, zero energy social housing. Not only would this be good for the environment, but it would also reduce household energy costs.

In the renewable energy field, advances in solar panel and battery technology have not only made renewable energy cheaper and more reliable, but also shortened the timeframe in which renewable generation could increase. It has also opened the prospect of renewable energies becoming a major export item.
Renewable energy sources, BZE argues, give Australia a competitive advantage and, along with the development of green hydrogen technology, allow it to expand its manufacturing sector, including the production of green steel and green aluminum.

Many of these ideas are taken up in the reports from the Australia Institute and Climate Council and the Australian Greens’ Green New Deal plan (who also argue that a return to free higher education would create many more jobs).

Some unions, such as the Maritime Union of Australia and unions involved in the Hunter Jobs Alliance, are discussing some of the BZE’s proposals.

While it sees an important role for direct public investment in power transmission line projects, building energy efficient public housing, and electrifying buses and trains, it hopes the corporate sector will see the profit openings on the renewable economy and come with most of the hundreds of Billions of dollars needed.

But she also wants the government to encourage companies to invest by providing infrastructure, low-cost finance, price guarantees, and faster regulatory approvals.

Second, many global studies show that public funds have historically created more jobs when spent on public works than when given as subsidies or tax cuts to the corporate sector.

Third and foremost, the urgency of the climate emergency means we can’t wait for the corporate rich to take the plunge and stop trying to save their stranded assets in the fossil fuel economy.

Fourth, the shibboleth that governments cannot go into debt for good causes has been blown since the government began to amass public debt, only to waste much of its last budget on tax cuts and subsidies, which benefited the already rich mostly.

It could be argued that history has already overtaken some of the key politico-economic assumptions on which the BZE’s million dollar employment plan is based.

As the government defends its big business partners in the gas and mining industries (and the banks that have a large stake in their stranded fossil fuel interests), the Labor opposition has come closest to one of these alternative ideas, a promise improve the power grid so that the “market” can decide which mix of renewable and fossil fuels to use!

In the meantime, any union, environmental activist group or progressive political party ready to build a popular movement for the much-needed swift transition to decarbonising our society should start revising the plans put forward by BZE and others in order to adapt them Reality that we cannot be held hostage of the capitalist class to make the urgent shift.

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