Exit from net zero


Time to start planning

We need a plan before a government comes to power with a mandate to exit, only to find that they have to make it up during the first year of office.

More commentators are talking about an orderly exit from coal, instead of the insane stampede prescribed by most Australian governments and  AEMO  so you might think that they realise that we keep the coal fires burning until nuclear power is well established.

But they are still living in the parallel universe of net zero delusion and they just want to slow down the retreat from coal until we have enough RE installed to stand in for it.

The “accelerating exit of coal is not happening because the transition to intermittent sources is impossible due the combined effect of wind droughts and the lack of grid-scale storage.

The net zero program is not going to work and Terry McCrann reminded us that there is a way back to a future with cheap and reliable power from a mix of coal, gas and nuclear. Add hydro plus wind and solar off-grid wherever it makes sense.

At the same time, he put a damper on the prospects of nuclear power in the near future, with the story of the attempt to build a low-grade, mostly medical waste plant in the outback. Planning began in the 1980s while  Hong Kong started to build their second airport. That was done by 1998 but we still don’t have the nuclear waste disposal facility.

Zealots of the wind and solar industries will contest the exit call because they are animated by ideological, political and financial motives that have nothing to do with good science and engineering principles  or concern for people and the planet.

Trillions of dollars are in play in a gigantic RE ponzi cheme and billions will be made by well-placed players before it collapses.  

Looking on the bright side, the collapse may not be far away as more states and nations reach the inflection (tipping) point where conventional power capacity runs down to the point where wind droughts pose a mortal threat to the power supply. See Texas in 2021. 

The call to exit net zero will appeal to those who face fuel poverty at home or the collapse of their profit margin at work. The case will have to be fully explained to bring the community on board to the point where they can bring serious pressure to bear upon their local members. That pressure will have to outweigh the power of the vested interests who control the politicians and the political process at present.

The public education campaign will be challenging because the RE zealots also dominate the mainstream media, the ABC and most of the centres of extra-parliamentary power and influence.

The exit will need a clear majority in favour in the community and bipartisan support from the major parties. Forget about the Greens and the Teals.

Support in the major parties will have to be based on strong support in the party rooms, in the face of the influences that are currently driving both parties.

The party that comes into office with a mandate to exit net zero will need to spend some years in advance working on the plan to get over the resistance from the myriad of departments, quangos and other government funded agencies that are currently dedicated to net zero.

The reform program must minimise failures that discredit the whole enterprise, in the way that Hewson failed to sell the GST and Whitlam’s hasty “across the board” tariff reduction in the 1970s  received negative press coverage which set back the push for deregulation.

In addition to the plan, prospective cabinet ministers will have to be trained and prepared to go head to head with their departments and they will need alternative advisors. Gladys Berejiklian as NSW transport minister spent years in opposition learning the trade and researching public transport systems around the world. She came in with a plan and she could not be easily snowed by the bureaucrats.


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Bruce
Bruce
October 4, 2023 8:58 am

“Storage? BIG storage?

If you think a Tesla fire is impressive…………….

And remind me again about who the major sources of Lithium are……

“Storage” and inverters work best at a “micro”-scale, like the UPS you have for your home and office computers…… You do have a UPS or two, don’t you? Preferably a unit that can me driven by a modest Solar array. Not at all unlike the units commonly found “on the road” in 4WD and camper-trailer rigs.

The cost and potential “technical issues” with mega-grid-scaled “batteries and three-phase inverters are questions that are, apparently, forbidden.

Trashing the coal-fired sources BEFORE ANY “practical renewables are even in-like is an act of pure, criminal malice; nothing less

This is just another aspect of the Death-Cultists at work.

Rohan
Rohan
October 4, 2023 9:53 am

The exit will need a clear majority in favour in the community and bipartisan support from the major parties.

Right, with both major parties now all jiggy jiggy with the Annette Zero RE hussy. That is going to take a paradim shift within both parties and I can’t see that happening, given the ALP and LNP are both beholdend to neo-trotskiest/green left power brokers.

The Beer whisperer
The Beer whisperer
October 4, 2023 12:29 pm

We are embarrassingly behind the rest of the world, and that inevitably includes the quiet withdrawal from net zero insanity. It has already started overseas but Albo is barely starting to ramp up.

Let’s speed it up, shall we?

Tom
Tom
October 4, 2023 2:13 pm

The first step in an exit from Net Zero must be an acknowledgement that “climate change” is an entirely invented junk science without a shred of evidence to support it.

Climate change is what happens when Christians become athiests — that is, they’ll believe in anything.

The root of climate hysteria is a profound cultural self-hatred, which is so acute it manifests itself in many cases as physical self-loathing.

The Chinaman who mused that we live in interesting times obviously had no experience of the West’s modern depravity.

Tom Atkinson
Tom Atkinson
October 4, 2023 2:55 pm

The first step in an exit from Net Zero must be an acknowledgement that “climate change” is an entirely invented junk science without a shred of evidence to support it.

Hear, hear!

Not only is there ZERO evidence for the theory of anthropogenic global warming, the science behind the theory is very weak and …

Those pushing it have never gotten a single forecast, claim or prediction right yet. NOT ONE!

Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
October 4, 2023 3:26 pm

Uncle Mario was evidently banging on about “Climate Change” causing fires and Collingwood Premierships earlier today.

Don’t suppose there is any danger of him, or the buffoon Bowen, providing any scientific evidence to back up those unhinged claims?

Just, ……., feel the vibe!
Now, dig into your wallets and pay through the nose, for your energy requirements, ……. serf!
About the Screech, …….

Cliff Boof
Cliff Boof
October 4, 2023 3:53 pm

We could learn something from the UK if we were not so stupid.

The UK aim is for a final investment decision to be taken on SMR manufacturers in 2029.

That’s six years from now friends and neighbours.

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/UK%C2%A0SMR-selection-contest-Six-companies-into-next

amortiser
amortiser
October 5, 2023 10:24 am

Not only is there ZERO evidence for the theory of anthropogenic global warming, the science behind the theory is very weak and …

Those pushing it have never gotten a single forecast, claim or prediction right yet. NOT ONE!

It’s not even a theory, it’s an hypothesis. The hypothesis can be tested by comparing the predictions based on the hypothesis with real world outcomes or empirical evidence.

The hypothesis fails on all counts. The most obvious problem for them is the fact that catastrophic sea level rise has not eventuated despite the fact that CO2 emissions have been increasing faster that what was predicted. The Maldives, Kiribati and Manhattan are still well above water.

It is no longer science that is being debated.

kneel
kneel
October 5, 2023 10:30 am

“The first step in an exit from Net Zero must be an acknowledgement that “climate change” is an entirely invented junk science without a shred of evidence to support it.”

That will be hard to do, even though it is obviously and self-evidently true, as anyone who has done even a little research can attest.

It might be much easier to show how renewables do NOT provide “like for like” replacement, that they require FF backup in any case, that China is building more coal stations every year than the entirety of Australia has now and look like continuing to do so for the next decade at least.

In short, to suggest that we can only “drop” coal when we have a suitable replacement, and currently we do not even come close to having this.

It may also be worthwhile to point out that Australia has more renewables per captita than any other nation on Earth – we are not “laggards”, we are the leaders! We can only continue to be leaders if we make sure that supply is reliable and cheap.

Duc de Normandie
October 6, 2023 10:06 am

Orwell once said that some things are so daft only academics and the bien pensant believe them. This is true of Net Zero.

I find around here that normal people don’t believe a word the lightly educated urban lefties say. Supporters of green policies are mainly silly young people, public sector employees and their consultants, and academics. Once public opinion turns against them, they’ll find themselves ignored.

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