ENERGY PRICE RELIEF PLAN FOR AUS AS US CLIMATE BILL TRIGGERS GREEN CAPITAL TSUNAMI

NATIONAL CABINET ACTS ON ENERGY PRICE CRISIS | 

On Friday, national cabinet agreed on measures to curb the fossil fuel bill shock impacting millions of Australians, demonstrating the power of constructive, collaborative policymaking when you have an intelligent, responsible government and the states working together in good faith for the national interest.

The four part federal energy price relief plan announced by PM Albanese includes: a gas wholesale price cap of $12/GJ which parliament has been recalled this week to legislate; a $125/t coal price cap; $1.5bn in energy rebates for households and small businesses; and an energy security component comprising the new capacity investment mechanism agreed to by state and federal energy ministers this week – designed to trigger a rapid escalation in firmed renewables – and the $20bn Rewiring the Nation plan, geared to a massive build-out of transmission infrastructure. 

Still to do: properly tax the fossil multinationals reaping obscene war profits from Australia's sovereign public assets – by our calculations some $140bn this year, with most paying next to no corporate tax – as they laugh all the way to the bank.

Read our SMH op ed, which includes a wrap of the outcomes of national cabinet and the watershed energy ministers meeting, which paves the way for accelerated decarbonisation – ultimately the only solution to end polluting, volatile and ultra-expensive coal and gas generation and permanently reduce energy prices. 

It has been disappointing in the last few days to read suggestions coal mining firms are set to get a $500m taxpayer handout, even as profits skyrocket. 

US INFLATION REDUCTION ACT SPURS TSUNAMI OF GREEN INVESTMENT |

CEF director Tim Buckley and analyst Matt Pollard examine the extraordinary impacts of US President Joe Biden's $369bn Inflation Reduction Act and associated programs in triggering a tidal wave of inbound green investment, and turbocharging the nation's energy and economic transformation. The Act is a model other nations might well look to for inspiration. Read our analysis of the policy context and deal book, also published by US-based Climate & Capital Media.

MEDIA |

Tim Buckley has been active in the media with commentary on the energy price crisis. In addition to our SMH op ed, this included The Drum, ABC 7.30, Canberra Times and 100+ other mastheads via AAP, Channel 9 primetime TV News (also on Channel 7), The New Daily, Sky News Afternoon Agenda with Kieran Gilbert, Renew Economy 1, Renew Economy 2, The Australian, and The Guardian, Sky Regional Breakfast, and ABC News Radio, with more to come. See a broad range our media here.

On the international front, Tim provided commentary for the Washington Post on Gautam Adani's coal fired power station behemoth in Godda, eastern India, which is price gouging the poor of neighbouring Bangladesh; and the Financial Times on the the UK's first coal mine approval in 30 years, for which the government is wheeling out the old drug dealers' defence.

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