By Andrew Bolt ~
South Australia has ridiculously high power prices, in part because it relies so heavily on expensive green power (which in turn demands extra subsidies).
High power prices kills heavy industry in particular and South Australia is fast becoming a basket case, with unemployment at 7.7 per cent.
So it is obscene that Premier Jay Weatherill not just promises to get even more green power, but claims this will actually be good for jobs rather than bad:
South Australia’s Premier Jay Weatherill has announced plans for the State Government to become 100 per cent powered by “low carbon electricity”, as he prepares to depart for an international climate change conference in Paris next month…
Today, the State Government will release a call for expressions of interest to come up with “innovative proposals” to ensure all electricity it uses comes from green sources.
Weatherill’s solution to South Australia having uncompetitive power prices is to force other states to go greener, too:
Mr Weatherill said SA’s large amount of green power, from sources including wind and solar, positioned the state to benefit from a strong international anti-carbon agreement in Paris.
And he’s be shovelling out more taxpayers’ money not to create jobs but to pretend to save the planet from a grossly exaggerated threat – or even non-threat:
As part of the low-carbon electricity tender, the Government will seek to acquire up to 481 gigawatt hours of electricity per annum for public sector sites. It says that purchasing power will encourage innovation from businesses in the renewable and low-emission sectors.
Nothing South Australia does will actually make a blind bit of difference to the climate. This is purely a gesture, at huge expense. And forget claims that this will actually create jobs rather than kill them overall:
“We are determined to make Adelaide a showcase city for low-carbon and clean technologies, to attract investment, drive innovation and create new jobs,” Mr Weatherill said.
Where are those new jobs? Will they compensate for these:
A closure of Port Augusta’s coal-fired power stations by early 2018 could drive up electricity prices in South Australia, an economic forecaster says.
Alinta Energy told its workforce yesterday the twin power stations, one of them already mothballed, and an associated coal mine at Leigh Creek would close by March 2018 but possibly as soon as next April.
The jobs of 438 workers are to go across the Port Augusta and Leigh Creek operations…
Danny Price from Frontier Economics said … “There’s no doubt at all that subsidised wind generation in particular has had a very significant effect on Alinta’s decision…”
Meanwhile, of course, the planet has not warmed for 18 years.
Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia.
Andrew Bolt’s columns appear in Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and Adelaide’s Advertiser. He runs the most-read political blog in Australia and hosts Channel 10’s The Bolt Report each Sunday at 10am. He is also heard from Monday to Friday at 8am on the breakfast show of radio station MTR 1377, and his book Still Not Sorry remains very widely read.
Read more excellent articles from Andrew Bolt’s Blog . http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/
