Rather than an endlessly reheated nuclear debate, politicians should be powered by the evidence

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 19:39:20 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/30/rather-than-an-endlessly-reheated-nuclear-debate-politicians-should-be-powered-by-the-evidence>

"We should be wary of simple declarations about the increasingly rapid
transformation of the electricity grid.

The government has been given a sharp reminder of this after leaning too
heavily on pre-election modelling that suggested its policies to boost
renewable energy could lead to a $275 cut in bills by 2025. You never know when
a Vladimir Putin-shaped villain might disrupt international fossil fuel
markets, wreck your assumptions and leave you accused of breaking an election
pledge.

Peter Dutton doesn’t have this excuse. The most generous thing that can be said
about his foray into the debate over electricity last week is that he might
want to get a broader range of advice.

Giving his budget reply speech, the opposition leader said the Coalition wanted
more renewable energy, but it just wasn’t possible yet, and it was a mistake
for the government to allow ageing and expensive fossil fuel power to be phased
out now.

More specifically: “The technology doesn’t yet exist at the scale that is
needed to store renewable energy for electricity to be reliable at night, or
during peak periods. That is just the scientific reality.”

To put it mildly, this is not the consensus opinion of experts in the field."

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

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