Coal baron and LNP donor blasts RBA for sounding alarm on climate change

The coal baron and Liberal National party donor Trevor St Baker has blasted the Reserve Bank deputy governor, Guy Debelle, for sounding the alarm on climate change, branding a significant speech on Tuesday warning of risks to Australia’s financial stability “totally inappropriate”.

 ERM Power founder Trevor St Baker (right)
has suggested the RBA deputy governor
Guy Debelle lacks technical understanding
 of how the electricity market works. 

The politically connected founder of the business electricity retailer ERM Power, who has approached the Morrison government to underwrite new coal developments in Victoria and New South Wales, including a high-efficiency plant on the site of the AGL-owned Liddell power station, told the ABC on Wednesday Debelle’s intervention was out of order.

The RBA deputy governor on Tuesday noted businesses and policymakers needed to consider climate change as a trend and not a cyclical event, and said climate change-induced shocks to the economy would be “close to permanent” if droughts were more frequent and cyclones happened more often.

Read the story from The Guardian by Katharine Murphy - “Coal baron and LNP donor blasts RBA for sounding alarm on climate change.”

(Trevor St Baker is obviously ideologically deaf and blind as all the news I can see and hear, along with the irrefutable science, illustrates that climate change is going to make life startlingly difficult with the prime cause of that being our flagrant use of fossil fuels, mainly coal. Beyond that, Mr St Baker needs to be aware that there is no such thing as a “high-efficiency” coal plant - Robert McLean)

‘Disappointing': Business leaders slam Morrison government on energy policy

The federal government faces a mounting business backlash over energy policy as leaders of some of nation's biggest companies and most influential lobby groups have publicly lamented the ditching of the National Energy Guarantee and blasted its proposed replacement.

BlueScope CEO Mark Vassella said the government has
 wasted the potential of the National Energy Guarantee.CREDIT:

One of the country's biggest manufacturers, Bluescope, on Friday singled out the decision to scrap the National Energy Guarantee as disappointing.

BlueScope chief executive Mark Vassella said the steelmaker, which employs thousands of people around Australia, understood energy policy was "complex and political" but the challenges in the sector needed to be addressed.

Read the story from The Age - “‘Disappointing': Business leaders slam Morrison government on energy policy.”

Scott Morrison blasts coal rebels, says new coal power twice as expensive

Treasurer Scott Morrison has blasted a call by Coalition MPs for the government to build a coal-fired power station, saying it would not provide cheap electricity as claimed, but power that could be twice as expensive.

Scott Morrison has blasted a call by Coalition MPs for the
government to build a coal fired power station, saying it
 would not provide cheap electricity. 

With a ginger group of Liberal and Nationals MPs called the Monash Forum demanding the government invest up to $4 billion to build a High Efficiency, Low Emissions (HELE) coal-fired plant in Victoria, Mr Morrison said such a project would take many years to build and the electricity it produced would be far more expensive than that being generated by existing coal-fired power stations.

"There's a difference between old coal and new coal. Old coal bids into the energy grid at about $30 a megawatt hour, it could be up to $40,' he told The Australian Financial Review Banking & Wealth Summit.

Read the story from The Financial Review by Phillip Coorey - “Scott Morrison blasts coal rebels, says new coal power twice as expensive.”