Energy White Paper 2014 –
Issues Paper submission template
Details of person making the submission
First Name
Peter
Surname
Sainsbury
Country (if not Australia)
State
NSW
Company or Organisation (if relevant)
Citizen
Position in Organisation (if relevant)
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Sector. Please choose from the dropdown list
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Email. Please provide an email address if you
would like to receive updates from the Energy
White Paper Taskforce
sainsburyp@email.cs.nsw.gov.au
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.
Input Fields for Energy White Paper – Issues Paper submission 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:
Although advanced societies may be peaking in their energy consumption, they will continue to
consume large amounts of energy. Developing economies are going to require increasing amounts of
energy in the coming decades. Thus nationally and globally we need sources of immense energy.
However, the short and long term security of energy supplies is not a stand alone issue. Nationally and
globally we must have energy policies and energy sources that are environmentally sustainable. Fossil
fuels are not environmentally sustainable. On the contrary, they are rapidly destroying the natural
environment upon which all life depends and, of most immediate concern, the stable conditions of the
last 10,000 years on which human civilisation depends. An energy policy that is dependent on fossil
fuels for, say, another 25 years will destroy human civilisation and possibly even the human race. The
security of energy supplies must be conceived in the White Paper as the security of energy supplies
from environmentally sustainable sources. This will require a very rapid transition from our current
dependence on fossil fuels to 100% sustainable energy sources - this is achievable. There is no point in
having energy security if we lose the security of a supportive natural environment and with it the
security of food supplies, the security of a healthy environment and the security of relative world
peace.
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:
Input Fields for Energy White Paper – Issues Paper submission template
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It goes without saying that energy producers, distributers and users should be as efficient as possible
and seek to reduce energy consumption individually and collectively. This makes sound environmental
and economic sense. A range of incentives is needed to encourage this.
It also goes without saying that unnecessary or ineffective barriers should not be put in the way of
efficiency of energy production, distribution or use. This does not however mean that government
regulation is not worthwhile. It is the job of government to protect their citizens and that sometimes
(often) means having regulations that place limits on corporate and individual activities that may serve
their own short term, self-oriented interests but are not in the interests of the community at large.
History is full of examples of disasters arising from inadequate or inadequately implemented regulation
of individual and corporate behaviours. Energy policy and supply is at the very centre of human
civilisation and there must be appropriate regulations to ensure that the benefits and costs are borne
equitably by all sectors of the community, nationally and globally.
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:
My comments in section 2 regarding regulations are equally applicable here. There is no point in
streamlining approvals processes or reducing regulatory requirements (burdens is an inappropriate,
loaded word for an Issues Paper) if they lead to bad decisions or bad outcomes. Safeguards and
transparency are essential and must not be sacrificed for expediency.
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:
Australian energy policy must take account of the fact that the fossil fuel industry is a dying industry. At
some point in the not too distant future investors and governments will realise this. A national policy
that is not predicated on this understanding is a bad policy and one that will have catastrophic
consequences for Australia and humanity. Exporting fossil fuels has a very short life expectancy and
should not be a central pillar of Australia's energy or economic policy. Australia's energy policy must
have a focus on rapidly reducing our current energy and economic dependence on fossil fuels.
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:
No comment.
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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Energy efficiency in the transport sector could be achieved by policies and infrastructure that 1) support
and expand public transit and active transport (cycling and walking) and 2) support electric cars (from
electricity produced from sustainable sources).
Peak energy use can be reduced by ensuring that domestic, commercial and industrial buildings are built
to take advantage of natural heating and cooling.
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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:
See elsewhere but it is important to note that avoiding market distortion and increased energy prices
are short term, narrowly conceived political goals, not long term strategic goals that serve the interests
of the whole community, Australian and global.
Current energy prices are relatively low because of our dependence on fossil fuels that are subsidised
and that do not include the full costs of their production and consumption. If fossil fuels were priced
realistically they would not seem so cheap and as the costs of fossil fuel production rise (as more
difficult to access sources are mined) their prices will rise anyway. Renewable energy sources need not
be any more expensive than the real cost of fossil fuel energy.
Prices, however, are not the main issue. Having energy available to all while voiding environmental
destruction is the main issue that should drive the energy White Paper and policy.
General Comments
Any further comments?
This Issues Paper completely ignores the factor - environmental sustainability and particularly the
immense damage being done by fossil fuels - that should be the major consideration in developing
Australia's energy policy. The Issues Paper is entirely oriented to economic growth, business
competitiveness, expanding the Australian fossil fuel industry, deregulation, letting the private sector
pursue its interests with minimal government interference, and keeping consumer prices down. These
may seem like important issues if you are focused only on the next few years, the next dividend and the
next election but they are distractions if you are interested in preserving a natural environment in which
ecosystems are protected and humanity is able to survive for more than another 100-200 years.
There is no mention of climate change at all in the Issues Paper, let alone the severe threats it poses.
There is sporadic mention of renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions but always
rather in the tone of either ‘this is a “good thing” to do’ and/or ‘we need to do something to satisfy our
obligations’, and always with the proviso that promoting them doesn’t distort the market or increase
prices, certainly not because ‘if we don’t there will be catastrophic consequences’. This is a severe
omission. Climate change must become the central issue in the policy.
The health impacts of the various alternatives for energy production and use are not mentioned at all in
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the Issues Paper. These should be properly factored into the White Paper. THe NHMRC should be asked
to produce a comprehensive report on these to inform the policy and the White Paper. When the
externalities associated with fossil fuel production and burning are properly taken into account fossil
fuels lose their apparent economic competitiveness.
Comprehensive Health Impact Assessments should be conducted on all new energy production plans
and projects and strategic Health Impact Assessments should be conducted on all sources of energy.
I strongly support the emphasis on ‘evidence-based policy’ but this must include evidence about
climate change and the health effects of the various sources of energy production and use. Anything
less is not evidence based policy.
I strongly support the development of a ‘multi-decade energy and resource projects pipeline’ (p 19) and
point out again that taking the evidence about global warming and its causes and the concept of a
carbon budget into account means having policies that rapidly replace fossil fuels with renewables. I
might also mention the inappropriateness and apparent bias of the metaphor of a pipeline!
The evidence is clear:
- that global warming is occurring,
- that it is occurring rapidly,
- that it primarily arises from burning fossil fuels,
- that global warming is already causing disease and deaths in Australia and worldwide,
-that even the <2 degrees C rise agreed internationally poses very serious threats to the evironment,
ecosystems and human welfare, development, security and civilisation,
- that there is a global carbon budget that specifies how much fossil fuel can be burnt and still stay
under (the very dangerous) 2 degrees C warming,
- that at current rates of consumption of fossil fuels that global carbon budget will be burnt up in the
next 15 or so years,
- that Australia's current plans to mine, export and burn fossil fuels will consume a large proportion of
the global carbon budget,
- that action must be taken in the next 10-15 years to eliminate the use of fossil fuels and transition to
renewable energy sources,
- that most of the fossil fuels that are still in the ground must be left there and hence that the fossil fuel
industry will collapse in the next decade or two,
- that renewable sources of energy must be developed as rapidly as possible over the next decade and
that governments must be more active in promoting this,
- that renewable energy technologies currently exist to supply all of Australia's and soon the world's
energy needs, and most imporantly
- that Australia's energy policy must be based on these facts.
A White Paper that is not oriented around these facts will be failing Australian citizens and future
generations of humanity. Such a failure will be wilfully and immmorally negligent because these facts
are known and to ignore them is unconscionable. Future generations will wonder with anger how their
parents and grandparents could have so selfishly and stupidly ignored the facts.
(As an aside, this is a very user-unfriendly template.)
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