Friday, April 16, 2010

Paying more for less in @KevinRuddPM's green future - higher bills amid the brownouts & blackouts

I've used a similar expression myself to sum up the absurdity of green economics, where some people actually think it makes sense to get less for more.

But such are the crazy times we live. No wonder superstitions like homeopathy etc are on the rise. Having abandoned the pursuit of reason by way of carefully weighed evidence, is it any wonder that so many people can't see that this is something where the numbers will never add up.

If, that is, and when, you actually get the electricity. Because just as certainly we are headed for a downunder world of power brownouts and blackouts, when the lights - and everything else: fridges, air conditioners, ovens - are quite literally turned off.

This will be the case in every state, with the single possible exception of Tasmania, thanks to the hydro power that the Greens hate almost as much as the mainland’s coal-fired generators.

There is one reason and one person to blame: the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd…

The CEO of Origin Energy, Grant King, explicitly predicted the price rises in an important speech to CEDA - the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia - in Sydney on TuesdayAnd I quote: “We think it is quite possible that, by 2020, the price of energy to consumers will be two to three times what it is today.”

He was slightly less explicit in blaming Rudd. He said the price rises would be driven “largely by the current policy environment, large amounts of renewables being forced into the system, uncosted charges for those renewables given current policy settings, and substantial increases in transmission and distribution costs”.

Who’s responsible for the “current policy environment”? Who’s forcing “large amounts of renewables into the system”? And who’s responsible for all the consequent cost increases for transmission and the like?

Two words: our Kevin.

Posted via email from Garth's posterous

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