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https://reneweconomy.com.au/lies-damned-lies-and-coalition-energy-economics-duttons-latest-nuclear-claim-slammed/>
"Blink and you might have missed it, but Peter Dutton delivered another
toe-curling example of energy policy hokum on Sunday morning, as the first
guest of the first episode of the ABC’s
Insiders program for 2025.
In amongst other well-spun lies – such as the claim Labor’s energy policy
requires 28,000km of new transmission to be built – the leader of the federal
opposition appeared to say that electricity bills would be 44 per cent cheaper
under a Coalition government than under Labor.
How so?
“[Frontier Economics] look[d] at our energy policy compared to Labor’s, they
judge[d] that it’s 44 per cent cheaper than Labor’s,” Dutton says.
When
Insiders host David Speers points out that the 44% figure – itself hotly
contested, as is Frontier’s Economics’ entire approach to modelling nuclear
costs for Australia – relates to the cost of building nuclear between now and
2050 and not the power price impact, Dutton fudges further.
“If you’re delivering a model that’s 44% cheaper, that translates into cheaper
power prices,” he says.
Pushed on this point, Dutton says, “If you apply the economics, so if there’s a
44% reduction in the model of delivering an energy system, you would expect a
44% reduction, or of that order, being passed through in energy bill relief.”
Pushing once more, Speers says: “But Frontier didn’t tell you that that number,
you’re just, you’re just drawing that assumption yourself.”
Dutton: “Again, David, I mean, that’s that’s the economics of it. …All other
variables being equal, if you have a 44% reduction in the overall cost to
deliver that model, that is going to translate into that price reduction for
households and for businesses, and that’s what we must do.”
Happily for Dutton, the discussion switches away from energy at this point,
leaving his highly questionable application of “the economics of it” more or
less unchallenged.
Unhappily for Dutton, certain energy market experts and actual economists are
not having it."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
