New retailers pushing power prices down more than government

Competition from a new major energy company is driving down power prices faster than regulatory bodies according to analysts, but governments are unlikely to abandon plans to reform the gas and electricity market.

More consumer choice in the market is having a greater impact on power prices.

Perth-based energy company Alinta expanded into the east coast energy market with the billion dollar acquisition of Victorian coal-fired power station Loy Yang B late last year, and its aggressive growth strategy is being seen in the market as one of the major drivers of lower power bills.

“Alinta is doing more for lowering electricity costs on the east coast than anything the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will do,” Wood Mackenzie principal lead for oil and gas, Saul Kavonic, told Fairfax Media.

Read Cole Latimer’s story in The Age - “New retailers pushing power prices down more than government.”

EPA dismisses climate change scientists 'to replace them with industry reps’

The Environmental Protection Agency has dismissed at least five members of a major scientific review board, the latest signal of what critics call a campaign by the Trump administration to shrink the agency’s regulatory reach by reducing the role of academic research.

Donald Trump with Scott Pruitt, administrator
 of the Environmental Protection Agency. 

A spokesman for the EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, said he would consider replacing the academic scientists with representatives from industries whose pollution the agency is supposed to regulate, as part of the wide net it plans to cast. “The administrator believes we should have people on this board who understand the impact of regulations on the regulated community,” said the spokesman, JP Freire.

The dismissals on Friday came about six weeks after the House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at changing the composition of another EPA scientific review board to include more representation from the corporate world.

Read Coral Davenport’s story on the Independent - “EPA dismisses climate change scientists 'to replace them with industry reps’.”

Australia lagging as 'green bonds' about to explode

F

rench investment bank BNP Paribas tips the burgeoning global market for "green bonds" will treble to more than $US100 billion ($134.7 billion) in the year ahead.

But regulatory uncertainty and political hostility are hindering the ability of Australian companies to tap this growing capital pool.

Still BNP Paribas Australia chief executive James Gibson remains upbeat on the local market's future, predicting that a groundswell of consumer demand for green energy and sustainable investment options will outweigh any political interference.

"In the short term the regulatory uncertainty in Australia will make it harder for local companies to attract capital for green bonds, but in the long term what really matters to the value of any infrastructure asset is the strength of underlying demand," Mr Gibson said.

Read the Age story - “Australia lags as global market for green bonds set to treble in 2015”.