The Australian Greens have called for the establishment of a government-owned energy retailer, Power Australia, in order to bring down energy prices and drive emissions reduction 'by providing a guaranteed buyer for clean energy' to 'contract the next wave of renewable energy projects'.
Of course, you'd expect such a call from the Greens, but calls for investor certainty in the clean energy market have also been coming from industry, as the government struggles to develop a coherent, bipartisan energy policy (as has just happened in New Zealand).
In the wake of the recent ousting of Malcolm Turnbull over the emissions reduction components of the National Energy Guarantee (NEG), new Prime Minister Scott Morrison decided to decouple carbon emissions from government energy policy.
This has been roundly criticised by industry groups, with the Australian Energy Council, representing 21 major energy companies, stating that it 'means a continuation of the price instability and investment uncertainty we have been dealing with in this market for more than a decade'.
As Turnbull pointed out in the lead up to his resignation, 'ideology and idiocy' have been playing a significant role in national debates around energy policy in Australia for too long. A classic example of how this has muddied the waters around renewable energy can be found in the South Australian blackout of 2016.
In late September 2016, most of South Australia temporarily lost power after an extreme weather event (including two tornadoes in the north of the state) damaged critical energy infrastructure. Even as the crisis was unfolding, coalition politicians, including then-Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, attempted to blame the blackout on South Australia's commitment to renewable energy, despite having no evidence to support their claims.
Not only did the South Australian blackout have nothing to do with renewable energy, but recent events indicate that renewable energy is, in fact, highly resilient in the face of extreme weather events. In late August, lightning strikes across Australia created a 'power system emergency' that led to widespread power outages across New South Wales and Victoria.
"With Morrison's appointment of Angus Taylor — a renowned critic of renewable energy — as Australia's new Energy Minister, it's hard to see ideology being taken out of the equation any time soon."
In contrast, Queensland and South Australia's power was barely disrupted, reportedly due to their access to sufficient renewable energy supplies. In South Australia's case, this resilience was thanks to the Hornsdale Power Reserve, also known as the 'Tesla Big Battery' — a state government investment that was heavily mocked by our current Prime Minister who likened it to the Big Banana.
There is also evidence from the United States that renewable energy installations are showing themselves to be resilient in the face of extreme weather events. In the wake of Hurricane Florence, solar-power installations in the Carolinas escaped largely without harm and were able to begin producing power soon after the storm passed. This was consistent with the performance of renewables in other areas of the US, with both solar and wind power suffering little damage from storm events.
Beyond resilience, there is also the fact that renewables are not exacerbating these extreme weather events in the first place, unlike their fossil fuel competitors. Just the other week, scientists were able to estimate, for the first time, the contribution of climate change to the damage caused by a storm before it had even hit.
In the lead up to Hurricane Florence, a group of scientists 'estimated that forecasted rain totals [would be] more than 50 per cent higher than they might have been if humans hadn't warmed up the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels'.
In light of this mounting evidence, a national energy policy that prioritises renewables should be uncontroversial. But ideology is, apparently, impermeable to evidence. Instead, we have the incredible situation of the government continuing to try to pressure AGL into keeping the Liddell coal-fired power plant open despite both clear-cut economic and environmental reasons for its closure.
With Morrison's appointment of Angus Taylor — a renowned critic of renewable energy — as Australia's new Energy Minister, it's hard to see ideology being taken out of the equation any time soon.
As a result, it looks as though Australia will continue to rely on heavily polluting energy sources and ageing infrastructure as the lack of certainty forces companies to shy away from investing in new energy infrastructure. This gives us little chance of meeting our international emissions reduction commitments.
Most significantly for a government heading into an election period, this ideological approach also seems to guarantee that consumers will receive no relief from high energy bills.
Dr Cristy Clark is a lecturer at the Southern Cross University School of Law and Justice. Her research focuses on the intersection of human rights, neoliberalism, activism and the environment, and particularly on the human right to water.
Main image: Prime Minister Scott Morrison during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House on September 13, 2018 in Canberra, Australia. (Photo by Stefan Postles/Getty Images)