Opposition leader Peter Dutton has said Australians need to be more realistic about reconfiguring the entire power grid to reach net-zero.
“It’s hard to have a rational conversation on this topic with people because you’re shouted down for being a backward-looking person,” he told 2GB radio on June 2.
“The fact is if a city like Sydney mandated electric cars tomorrow ... the electricity grid would collapse because of people plugging their cars in at six o‘clock at night, they’d go home, have a shower, have some dinner, sit down and watch TV ... just the peak load of that—it just scientifically can’t work,” he said.
Dutton said he was supportive of renewable energy, but the technology was not advanced enough to consistently support the current way of life.
“If a discovery was made tomorrow and batteries could give your car a range of 700 kilometres instead of 270 ... let’s hope that happens one day, but I think we need a sober conversation about this topic.
“Yes, we want to reduce emissions, we want responsible environmentalism—it’s all a given .. but I’m not going to stand by and watch families go broke because they can’t pay their electricity bills.”
“By leaving, you are helping yourself while helping to protect those who remain with us because we have no choice but to pass on the wholesale costs we’re facing,” Luke Blincoe, CEO of ReAmped Energy, said in a statement.
Renewable energy advocates have blamed the price hikes on the country failing to develop alternative energy sources—wind, solar, and hydro—fast enough.
However, critics like Queensland Senator Matt Canavan say political intervention in the energy market, which is hampering the opening of new coal-fired generators and offshore drilling plants, has left the market without enough leeway to deal with increased demand for electricity.
“This is not complicated. When green policies, like net-zero, shut down coal, gas, and oil supplies, the price of energy goes up. When you restrict the supply of something useful, the price of that thing goes up,” he wrote on Twitter on June 1.
Dutton also warned that investors would benefit most from increased investment in the renewable sector, not consumers.
“We’ve got to have a frank jolt into reality in Australia about where we’re headed,” he said. “When you look at the billions of dollars being made by all of these traders on different renewable energy proposals—they don’t have any regard whether the lights go on or not—they’re making money.
Dutton called for the new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to explain to Australians how the country will reach net-zero.
“I really think [Prime Minister] Anthony Albanese has to explain properly to the Australian people what he’s proposing because I think prices will go up and jobs will go offshore.
“If businesses can’t get assurances around electricity supply—if there are brownouts or blackouts, and if their bills double—they will just pack up and go to another country where electricity is cheaper and supply is guaranteed.”
Increasing climate change action is a focal point of the new Labor government with the centre-left party already pledging to legislate a new emissions reduction target of 43 percent by 2030, instead of the current 26-28 percent.
Such a pledge could spell an end—or slow down—in approvals for new coal, oil, and gas production in the country.
Meanwhile, Chris Bowen, the new minister for climate change, said the party would end the “climate wars.”
“The Albanese Labor government will seek to end the climate wars by real action on climate change, bringing Australians together and listening to Australians of all walks of life,” he told reporters on June 2.
“We have been elected with a mandate for real action on climate change, ambitious but achievable action, as outlined in the policies we sought a mandate for and will implement.”
