Energy White Paper 2014 –
Issues Paper submission template
Details of person making the submission
First Name
Lauriston
Surname
Muirhead
Country (if not Australia)
State
Victoria
Company or Organisation (if relevant)
Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health
Position in Organisation (if relevant)
Chairperson
Type of Organisation. Please choose from the
dropdown list right
Other
Sector. Please choose from the dropdown list
right
Other Services
Email. Please provide an email address if you
would like to receive updates from the Energy
White Paper Taskforce
Confidentiality
Submissions may be published on the Department of Industry website.
If you do not wish to have your submission made public, please tick the box.
Issues for comment are listed against each of the Chapter Headings. In making your submission, you
are welcome to make comment against some or all of issues in the fields provided. A field for general
comments is provided at the end of the template.
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1. The Security of Energy Supplies
The Government seeks comment on:

ways community expectations can be better understood and reflected in reliability standards;

the value of developing fuel reserves to meet Australia’s international oil security obligations, and augment
domestic security;

ways to increase new gas sources to meet demand and measures to enhance transparency in market
conditions; and

issues relating to the regulation of energy infrastructure.
Please provide any comments on The Security of Energy Supplies below:
The security of energy supply is a key focus of our submission, but there is no such security possible
as long as we continue to exploit fossil fuel reserves.
It is clear from the suggested points above that our views and remarks on this are better suited to the
'general comment' section, and will be found there.
2. Regulatory Reform and Role of Government
The Government seeks comment on:

priority issues, barriers or gaps within the COAG energy market reform agenda;

possible approaches and impacts of review of tariff structures including fixed network costs, further time-ofuse based electricity tariffs and the use of smart meters;

possible measures to promote greater price transparency in gas markets; and

areas where further privatisation of government-owned assets would contribute to more effective regulatory
frameworks and better outcomes for consumers.
Please provide any comments on Regulatory Reform and Role of Government below:
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We see the government as having both an obligation and need to regulate and provide incentives such
that the rapid development of renewable sources of energy can be encouraged.
A focus on the needs and interests of the extractive energy industry clearly works counter to this. At
the same time a continued drive for privatisation of assets reduces the ability of government to move
development in the most desirable direction for the community and the environment, as can be clearly
seen from developments to date.
3. Growth and Investment
The Government seeks comment on:

commercial or market initiatives that could enhance growth and investment in the energy and resources
sectors;

areas where approvals processes could be further streamlined while maintaining proper environmental and
social safeguards;

further ways that regulatory burdens could be reduced while maintaining appropriate levels of disclosure and
transparency in energy markets; and

the impacts of variable land access policy and ways the community could be better informed and engaged on
development in the energy sector.
Please provide any comments on Growth and Investment below:
We are opposed to any further growth in the energy and resources sector that will result in ongoing
and increased carbon emissions. The cutting of 'green tape' - 'streamlining of approvals processes' - is
the antithesis of environmental and social 'safeguards' when those processes involve actions directly
threatening community and global health.
4. Trade and International Relations
The Government seeks comment on:

how to grow the export of value-added energy products and services;

ways to remove unnecessary barriers to continued foreign investment in Australia’s energy sector;

ways to strengthen support for access to export markets; and

ways to support business to maximise export opportunities for Australia's energy commodities, products,
technologies and services, including the value of Australia’s participation in the variety of international forums.
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Please provide any comments on Trade and International Relations below:
As pointed out in our submission in 'General comments', there is a great potential export market for
Australia's abundant renewable energy, directly into our northern markets.
The export of fossil fuels, under any guise, goes directly against this, as well as endangering the global
climate. By contrast the enormous market for imported PV panels, mostly from China, should be
encouraged until such time as incentives are provided for Australia to manufacture its own
infrastructure.
Also relevant here is the likelihood of punitive tariffs imposed on Australian exports because of its
failure to restrict carbon emissions. Increasingly Australia will be viewed as a global pariah, and its
presence at international for a will not be welcomed.
5. Workforce Productivity
The Government seeks comment on:

the nature of any current skills shortages being experienced and how these could be addressed by and with
industry;

the capacity of industry and education sector-led programs to meet long-term training and skills development
needs of the energy and resources sectors; and

specific long-term training and skills development needs for alternative transport fuel, renewable energy,
energy management and other clean energy industries.
Please provide any comments on Workforce Productivity below:
6. Driving Energy Productivity
The Government seeks comment on:

the current suite of energy efficiency measures, ways these could be enhanced to provide greater energy
efficiency or possible new measures that would enhance energy productivity;

the use of demand-side participation measures to encourage energy productivity and reduce peak energy
use; and

measures to increase energy use efficiency in the transport sector.
Please provide any comments on Driving Energy Productivity below:
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We welcome any government programs and incentives that will genuinely improve energy efficiency, but
the focus must always be on the reduction of energy consumption that can be achieved. If the only effect
of such 'efficiencies' is that we do more with the same amount of energy then this object has not been
achieved.
One of the first and most basic measures that must be taken to improve efficiency of transport fuel use is
the removal of the Diesel fuel rebate. This question is discussed in the general comments below.
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7. Alternative and Emerging Energy Sources and Technology
The Government seeks comment on:

ways to encourage a lower emissions energy supply that avoids market distortion or causes increased energy
prices;

the need to review existing network tariff structures in the face of rapidly growing deployment of grid-backedup distributed energy systems, to ensure proper distribution of costs;

additional cost-effective means, beyond current mandatory targets and grants, to encourage further
development of renewable and other alternative energy sources and their effective integration within the wider
energy market;

how the uptake of high efficiency low emissions intensity electricity generation can be progressed;

any barriers to increased uptake of LPG in private and commercial vehicles and CNG and LNG in the heavy
vehicle fleet; and

any barriers to the increased uptake of electric vehicles and advanced biofuels.
Please provide any comments on Alternative and Emerging Energy Sources and Technology below:
Given the special emphasis of our submission on the necessity of Renewable Energy development, this
section is mostly addressed in general comments below. Here it is only necessary to observe that there
is an apparent and unreasonable prejudice expressed in the suggested points above, where by this
development is seen as only desirable if it has no negative effects on the existing fossil fuel based
industry.
For instance, a desire for 'additional cost-effective means, beyond current mandatory targets and
grants' is in the current reality a desire for these 'cost-effective' means to be alternatives to the
mandatory targets, the removal of which is being discussed.
We do not need to look at ways to 'progress 'low emissions' electricity generation until we have fully
developed Zero-emissions generation.
There must also be severe reservations about the further development of 'advanced' biofuels, as all
such fuels have some negative aspects for the environment and for agricultural production. We should
welcome the passing of the draft horse from agriculture, and not wish to see the land that grew oats to
feed it used to grow food for our modern 'draft horses' - as long as sensible alternatives are available.
General Comments
Any further comments?
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I attach our main submission below:
Submission (February 2014) from Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) to Issues Paper
(December 2013) for Energy White Paper.
The issues paper appears to prioritise the security of energy supplies and regulatory reform (and the
role of government). Therefore this submission will also focus on these areas with some comments on
the other parts of the issues paper.
Basic economic theory makes it clear that finite fuel resources which are burnt, such as the fossil fuels
of coal, oil and gas, will tend to increase in price over time. From a global perspective, not only is the
supply of fossil fuels dwindling but the demand is rising as the world population is expected to increase
from approximately seven to ten billion by 2050. In addition to simple population growth, the trend of
increasing energy use per capita is expected to continue. Declining supply and increasing demand of
fossil fuels means that their price will rise exponentially over the medium term – the next thirty years,
and the period for which this energy planning is relevant.
The generally rising price of fossil fuels is overlaid by short term variability, caused by the geopolitical
stability or otherwise, of the principal fossil fuel producers and consumers. Australia, being a net
importer of oil and exporter of coal, is particularly vulnerable to this unpredictable variation. For
example war in the Middle East creates sudden and extreme increases in the price of oil whereas
economic stagnation in China and/or India creates sudden and extreme falls in the price of coal creating
very high investment risks as assets become stranded.
Being a net exporter of a fossil fuel does not necessarily protect the producer from price variation.
Australia is a net exporter of gas but local consumers are experiencing rapid price rises as it is difficult
to insulate the domestic price from the increasing international price .
Fossil fuel generation relies on large quantities of high quality water to drive steam turbines, and for
cooling, thus further adding to costs. During dry periods generators have already had to compete on
the open market against other industries, such as agriculture, to purchase water at times of peak
demand creating further price variability.
The trading of fossil fuels, and their extremely sensitive link to geopolitical and economic pressures,
make a boom and bust cycle inevitable.
For economic reasons alone the concept of "sustainable growth" based on finite resources such as
fossil fuels is clearly an impossibility. However there is an even more pressing reason to move away
from fossil fuels, which does not appear to have been mentioned in the issues paper, and that is
pollution.
Basic physics theory makes it clear that releasing additional greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide
and methane, warms the planet. It is not possible to mine and burn fossil fuels on a practical scale
without releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases.
Fossil fuels are the captured and stored carbon from earth's atmosphere of many tens of millions of
years ago when the planet was hotter than humans have experienced in the history of their evolution.
By burning some of the captured and stored carbon in our current atmosphere since the beginning of
the industrial era, humans have elevated carbon dioxide levels higher than at any time in the last
800,000 years. This process has led to an approximately one degree Centigrade (C) increase in global
temperature within the last century. Another one degree rise is calculated to be already in the system.
Global warming of more than two degrees C is seen by most scientists as dangerous in terms of
supporting the current, let alone the expected, population.
While anthropogenic climate change, resulting from increasing carbon dioxide and methane levels, is
the primary challenge we must address, other pollutants related to the burning of fossil fuels are also
having real impacts on the health of Australians.
For example mercury from coal has already contributed to contamination of the food supply (fish) to the
extent that pregnant women are advised by Australian government agencies to restrict their
consumption of certain fish to reduce the risk of foetal abnormalities from mercury toxicity .
The only rational risk based response to the above economic and environmental problems with fossil
fuels is to move, as rapidly as is practical, away from fossil fuels to energy sources that do not have
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built-in cost increases and do not pollute on the scale of fossil fuels.
The adoption of ‘low emissions technology’ is both unsustainable and ineffective. This particularly
applies to ‘Carbon Capture and Storage’ which, even were it feasible on a sufficiently large scale, would
be completely uneconomic without huge government subsidy. Such money would be far better spent
developing renewable power generation. Besides, the simplest analysis will show that less energy
would be used and fewer emissions generated by simply leaving coal in the ground. It is indeed
‘Nature’s carbon capture and storage’, buried tens of millions of years ago.
The cost of the source of renewable energy (e.g. sun, wind, geothermal, wave, hydro etc.) is constant (at
zero) and therefore, in contrast to fossil fuels, there is no medium or long term price variability from the
cost of the fuel itself. In practice, research and development leads to increasing efficiency in
converting renewable sources of energy to useful forms (such as electricity) and so the long term cost
trend is downwards. For example the increase in efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity in a
photovoltaic cell, as well as the scale of production, has led to a dramatic decrease in the cost of
photovoltaic electricity within a decade. Assuming rational market forces are at work, the cost of
producing each unit of renewable energy will always be driven downwards, over time, by increasing
efficiency of extraction.
The relatively high capital cost of renewable energy generation is rapidly offset by its low maintenance
and ongoing generation cost, and this equation can only become more favourable as the cost of fossil
fuel based electricity generation rises and renewable energy extraction efficiencies increase.
While the opportunities for further exploitation of Hydro-electricity are limited in Australia, the huge
past investment in Hydro schemes continues to pay dividends in providing significant energy at peak
demand, and also in its capacity to effectively store this energy. Its potential to combine with solar
power through the use of ‘pumped storage’ should be investigated and capitalised upon.
Unlike fossil fuels, the primary growth areas of renewable energy – photovoltaic and wind – require no
water at all.
A perceived drawback of renewable energy is short term variability of supply (e.g. sun not shining, or
wind not blowing). Australia is the 6th largest country in the world with only the 57th largest
population giving it a population density ranking of 228th out of 235 inhabited countries . The amount
of sun, wind and other renewable energy resources available in a vast country to a relatively small
population means that Australians could and should be leading the world in a move to 100% renewable
energy. There is almost limitless export potential in selling electricity to south east Asia. The export of
electricity obviously does not require rail, road, port, shipping infrastructure etc. “The solar energy
resource (annual solar radiation) in areas of flat topography within 25 km of existing transmission lines
(excluding National Parks), is nearly 500 times greater than the annual energy consumption of
Australia.”
Germany, a heavily industrialised nation (not known for its sunny climate) with three times the
population of Australia has reached a point where at some times it is running on 50% solar power .
In light of the above, the role of Australian governments must be to set the regulatory environment to
manage the transition from fossil to renewable energy safely, quickly and smoothly. Regulatory carrots
and sticks interacting with market forces can easily achieve this transition, given a commitment to it.
As an example, readers need only consider the huge effect on the behaviour of consumers of variable
pricing rates, previously based on the characteristics of coal-fired power generation.
Long held practices, such as central power generation and cheap night use "base load" power, will
have to be re-thought. Solar power can be more distributed in its production and is also better attuned
to normal human daytime activity. Its effect on the power supply during peak summer demand periods
is increasingly significant in reducing demand and wholesale costs.
It cannot be claimed that such ‘energy policy’ should be left to market forces, with decreased regulatory
constraints, while eight to twelve billion dollar annual subsidies have been and are being used to drive
the economy in a different direction. The enormous subsidies to the Mining and Transport sectors
through the Diesel rebate and through various favourable tax concessions should be urgently reviewed,
and policies developed, that will see them reduced to zero.
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While stationary energy users - and use - will be relatively unaffected by the change in energy source,
some changes will need to be made to the way the energy is used in some sectors - particularly
transport. Australia is extremely vulnerable to variation in supply in liquid fuels such as petrol, diesel,
aviation fuel etc. so converting these modes of transport to use electricity (e.g. electric vehicles, very
fast trains etc.) should be an important additional area of government involvement.
Renewable energy production creates more jobs than the current energy production mix . The
availability of less expensive land for renewable infrastructure in regional Australia means that the jobs
created are largely regional jobs helping to financially reinvigorate regional productivity. Transporting
the product (electricity) to urban centres requires no significant road, rail or other infrastructure as it is
done with cable.
An overall consideration of these two approaches to Australia’s energy future must suggest that
planning for a steady change away from environmentally and socially unfriendly resource extraction
and depletion, towards a sustainable and community focussed development of renewable energy
infrastructure, is both economically and environmentally desirable. Given the current fears of stranded
assets in the coal industry, and the likelihood of ‘greenhouse taxes’ being imposed by our trading
partners as we fail to cut our carbon emissions, such a change will surely soon also become an
economic necessity.
Prepared by:
Lauriston Muirhead and David Macilwain for WATCH
-
Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health
6th February 2014
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