ENERGY POLICY – AUSTRALIA

Previously NEGative, Shorten attacked for reviving dead policy

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Greg Brown
The Australian – Page: 4 : 17-Sep-18

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has criticised Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for signalling that Labor could potentially implement a policy that is similar to the national ­energy guarantee if it wins the next federal election. Frydenberg says Shorten is merely playing politics with regard to energy policy and is not concerned about reducing electricity prices. The NEG included a carbon emissions reduction target of just 26 per cent, compared with Labor’s proposed target of 45 per cent. Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman says the Labor target is "ridiculous" and would destroy the economy.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Frydenberg mourns death of NEG

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Tom McIlroy
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 10-Sep-18

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will ask Cabinet on 10 September to dump the emissions reduction targets contained in the now defunct National Energy Guarantee. Josh Frydenberg says he is disappointed by the NEG’s scrapping, but he denies suggestions it was the cause of Malcolm Turnbull’s demise as Prime Minister. Business groups want the "reliability component" of the NEG to be included in any future energy policy, while Labor climate spokesman Mark Butler accused Morrison of giving in to the Liberal Party’s conservative wing.

CORPORATES
LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP, BLUESCOPE STEEL LIMITED – ASX BSL, ORORA LIMITED – ASX ORA

Power price fix will leave customers worse off

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 2 : 5-Sep-18

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission recommended in July that a default retail power price be introduced. Its proposal, which would see the adoption of a retail price that would be capped by the Australian Energy Regulator, was recently endorsed by the federal government. However, EnergyAustralia CEO Catherine Tanna is understood to have told New South Wales Energy Minister Don Harwin that 70 per cent of its customers would be worse off if the ACCC’s recommendation was adopted.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN ENERGY REGULATOR, ENERGYAUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF ENERGY, CLP HOLDINGS LIMITED, SANTOS LIMITED – ASX STO, ORIGIN ENERGY LIMITED – ASX ORG, AGL ENERGY LIMITED – ASX AGL

Paris targets still on despite exemption

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 31-Aug-18

Environment Minister Melissa Price rather than Energy Minister Angus Taylor has been given responsibility for meeting Australia’s carbon emission reductions target under the Paris climate agreement. Price has expressed confidence that the target will be achieved, noting that the nation is on track to exceed its emissions reduction target for 2020. Policies aimed at reducing electricity prices will be a priority for Taylor, who has indicated that the federal government will adopt many of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s recommendations in its review of retail electricity prices.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN ENERGY REGULATOR, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

‘NEG is dead’: States go it alone

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Mark Ludlow, Ben Potter
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 30-Aug-18

Uncertainty about the future of the federal government’s national energy guarantee in the wake of the leadership spill has prompted Labor-led state governments to press ahead with their own renewable energy targets. Queensland’s Energy Minister Anthony Lynham says he has not anything from the federal government about the NEG since the leadership change, adding that the state remains committed to its renewable energy target of 50 per cent. The Australian Capital Territory’s Climate Change Minister Shane Rattenbury says it appears that the NEG will not proceed.

CORPORATES
QUEENSLAND. DEPT OF ENERGY AND WATER SUPPLY, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY. DEPT OF ENVIRONMENT, PLANNING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENTS, AUSTRALIA. ENERGY SECURITY BOARD

Price cuts come first over Paris emissions

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 30-Aug-18

Australia’s new Energy Minister Angus Taylor says his top priority in the portfolio will be to pursue measures that will result in lower electricity prices, rather than implementing carbon emission reduction targets under the Paris climate agreement. Taylor will use a Council of Small Business Organisations speech on 30 August to criticise the Opposition’s carbon emissions reduction target, arguing that it reduce the nation’s energy security as coal-fired power stations would be forced to close.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, COUNCIL OF SMALL BUSINESS ORGANISATIONS OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, McKINSEY AND COMPANY

Brace for blackouts without the NEG

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Andrew White, Perry Williams
The Australian – Page: 17 & 20 : 28-Aug-18

Australians have been warned to prepare for power blackouts after the federal government shelved its National Energy Guarantee. Rick Francis, the CEO of Spark Infrastructure, says not having an NEG means the energy sector lacks any "mechanism" to steer it through the transition to increased renewable energy generation. Stephen Bell, the CEO of petrochemicals producer Qenos, is disappointed that the federal government had chosen not to proceed with the NEG.

CORPORATES
SPARK INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP – ASX SKI, QENOS PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY, ERNST AND YOUNG, AUSTRALIAN ENERGY COUNCIL

ACCC power would be a catastrophe

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Ben Potter
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 22-Aug-18

Danny Price of Frontier Economics has warned that giving the competition regulator the power to break up vertically integrated energy companies would undermine investor confidence in both the sector itself and other industries that could potentially be subject to such regulation. Price adds that consumers would be worse off, as AGL Energy, EnergyAustralia and Origin Energy have accounted for the bulk of investment in new electric power generation capacity over the last decade.

CORPORATES
FRONTIER ECONOMICS PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, AGL ENERGY LIMITED – ASX AGL, ENERGYAUSTRALIA PTY LTD, ORIGIN ENERGY LIMITED – ASX ORG, AUSTRALIA. ENERGY SECURITY BOARD, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, BLOOMBERG NEW ENERGY FINANCE, MELBOURNE BUSINESS SCHOOL, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Matter Of Fact With Stan Grant

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Roy Morgan
abc.net.au – Page: Online : 20-Aug-18

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine discusses issues such as immigration, energy policy and the Paris climate agreement. She notes that research by Roy Morgan shows that the majority of Australians support Muslim immigration and euthanasia, while there is growing distrust of politicians and financial institutions such as banks. View the interview with Michelle from about 16:30 minutes into the program.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED

PM’s leadership on knife edge

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Simon Benson, Dennis Shanahan, Joe Kelly
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 20-Aug-18

The Federal Government held an emergency meeting of cabinet ministers at Parliament House on the evening of 19 August, amid growing unrest among the Coalition’s ranks over the proposed national energy guarantee. The leadership of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is also under scrutiny, although Christopher Pyne says he still has the support of the majority of cabinet ministers. However, a senior minister has suggested that a leadership challenge is inevitable, while a number of MPs are said to have told Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton that they will support him if he decides to challenge Turnbull.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS