The sheer idiocy of Barnaby and the Joycettes
In order to shut Barnaby Joyce and the Joycettes up, we will fork out $4 million for a feasibility study into a new coal-fired power station.
For some unknown reason, the Joycettes think this will reduce power prices. But, as Jim Molan confessed, they aren’t relying on evidence.
And there was a time when Scott Morrison knew this.
Less than two years ago, then treasurer Morrison smacked down a backbench push for the Turnbull government to back a new coal plant, arguing that high-efficiency coal does not mean cheap energy, and taxpayers would also be left on the hook.
At the time, Morrison rightly said that a new high-efficiency plant would take years to build and would end up bidding into the system at about double the price of existing plants.
“So you don’t just open up one down the road and all of a sudden it is producing power at the same price as Bayswater or any of the others,” Morrison said. “That is just not an economic fact.”
Morrison declared the government was not interested in subsidising any source of energy.
“The days of subsidies in energy are over, whether it is for coal, wind, solar, any of them,” the treasurer said. “That is the way I think you get the best functioning energy market with the lowest possible price for businesses and for households and that is what the national energy guarantee and our energy policies are designed to achieve.”
But dangle the bauble of leadership and watch how quickly he changes his tune – just like Tony Abbott did.
This is all about politicians’ ambition and nothing to do with reality.
The latest Quarterly Energy Dynamics from the AEMO shows just how out-of-touch the Joycettes are.
During the fourth quarter in 2019, wholesale electricity and gas prices fell sharply. According to the AEMO, “a key driver of this outcome was increased supply from wind farms, solar farms, and gas-powered generation (GPG), with combined grid-scale wind and solar output increasing by 39% compared to Q4 2018.”
They go on to say that “Lower prices occurred despite a high number of coal-fired generator outages, increased underlying demand, and record-breaking high temperatures.”
“Although maximum demands were generally higher across the NEM, average operational demands were lower, due to sunnier than average Q4 conditions coupled with a record amount of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) capacity installed in 2019.”
South Australia has come in for a lot of criticism from ignorant politicians and commentators who should appraise themselves of the facts.
“South Australia set a new all-time minimum demand record of 458 megawatts (MW) at 1330 hrs on 10 November 2019, 141 MW lower than 2018’s minimum. During this trading interval, rooftop PV provided an estimated 832 MW of output (64% of South Australia’s underlying demand).”
The idea that coal provides reliability is blown away by the increasing number of outages at old coal-fired power plants – the ones the Joycettes want to keep operating past their use-by date.
“Average black coal-fired generation decreased by 1,061 MW this quarter, reaching its lowest level since Q4 2016. The decline was due to a combination of coal supply issues, unit outages, and displacement by solar output.
Brown coal-fired generator outages remained high this quarter, with units on outage for 20 days on average, compared to the 10-year average of around 10 days on outage per unit per quarter.
Average gas-powered generation (GPG) remained at comparatively high levels, providing cover for coal-fired generator outages.”
Prolonging the life of old coal-fired power generators will not improve reliability. Building new ones won’t reduce energy prices.
So what the fuck are these idiot Joycettes on about?
They talk about saving jobs. The only jobs they are trying to save are their own and they are doing it by bullshitting us all with what Queensland MPs think sounds good to their coal-mining constituents. Their denial of the reality will not serve these constituencies well. What they need is vision for the future and proactive planning and involvement in helping these communities transition to new industries.
Oh for some informed decision-making based on what the country needs rather than the propaganda fed to and regurgitated by idiot Nationals MPs like Llew O’Brien and George Christensen.
If they are incapable of reading what all the experts and regulators are saying then they should be ignored rather than having this handful of ignoramuses threaten us with their childish ego-driven tantrums.
What are you, Scotty – a Prime Minister or a lackey to the Joycettes?
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paul walter
Return to home pageAnswer is easy. A lackey.
Oh dear … this fallacy of “cheaper energy prices” is defeated by the reported accountancy practices of the now private sector owners that prioritise the repayment of their purchase debt BEFORE calculating other costs. This maximises profits by minimising income. There will be more qualified accountants than myself to comment on this practice.
Then there is the furphy of “network overload” that ignores the gold plating of network poles and wires before privatisation by ideological politicians swept essential public infrastructure into the profits of the private sector for give away prices. Most power lines across NSW at least are paired to ensure continuous supply in the event of an unforeseen power breakage. The capacity is there, it is just the will to change to cheaper alternative energy sources that is missing from your COALition misgovernments.
I am certainly not by any means a fan of the Libs but it must really piss Morrison and the Libs of that they have to consider the idiocy of Joyce, Christensen, Canavan et al in making policy decisions. Tee Hee.
Yep. Total lackey.
And the constituents of these fck knuckles are represented exactly as they deserve to be.
I have just been without power for 36 hours because of the storm on the weekend. I hesitate to say that because the people who have suffered fires and floods are far worse off than me, but my point is that it doesn’t matter how your energy is generated when increasingly worse weather and intense natural disasters keep wiping out transmission systems. Their talk about reliability and resilience is so much crap. Power isn’t reliable when the wires come down and nothing they are doing makes the grid more resilient against the climate disasters they seem determined to ignore.
Liddell in its heyday was a high efficiency baseload power station. Baseload means they go to full load and stay there. Baseload power stations do not reduce load overnight or low load periods until all other generators are at or near minimum load. These days poor old Liddell would be flatout achieving 30% overall efficiency. Bayswater was designed to be a rapid response generator. It has the hardware to change load at an eye watering rate, whereas Liddell had very fine turbine tolerances which limited its rate of load change due to very tight differential expansion tolerances.
Low emission coal is talking about particulate emissions NOT CO2. Boilers and turbines have to be purpose built and I can assure you that the very best efficiency that can be achieved from a coal fired power station would be around 40%. All the crap the lnp are harping on about is all bullshit.
Coal fired generation is dead, Liddell PS should be allowed to retire with grace and our thanks, she was a great survivor of all the crap dished up to her, she did her job. When I got there in 1980 Unit 3 had just turned its toes up, 2 more followed and the 4th was overhauled so it wouldn’t blow up. Her units could be quite temperamental to bring on line, with extremely tight differential expansion tolerances in her turbine. She was a filthy place to work, coal leaks, dust leaks, bloody HP steam leaks. The work was physically hard, but our focus was on keeping the power to the people. We knew every nut & bolt in the place and I miss her talks. She was special, when walking around her boilers on inspection, she’d tell you by subtle noise changes that something was wrong. We’d find out before instrument readings in the control rooms started telling the story. There was no need for the senior operator to say a word, uh oh was enough and away we’d go, either to the boiler or the turbine, she’d tell us what was wrong when we got outside and listened.
She was a “dirty girl”, but had personality plus. Yes,I loved (adored) the old girl, even though she was on her knees and severely injured when I got there in 80. We worked on her and brought her back. She loved being touched, she loved it when you listened to her, and she responded in kind. She had her trouble spots but every worker there knew what had to be done, whether that meant shovelling sodden coal or maintaining drive on her conveyors during rain, if you had to do it, as I’ve had to for 20 hours straight that’s what you did, because in the end she was worth every drop of blood spilt, or cuss word spoken.
To think that the moronic lnp can firstly demand to buy her back and run it for a few years was pure socialism, to offer AGL $300mill to fix her up, wouldn’t even touch the side. The poor thing is tired, she’s falling apart, she is sad. She needs to retire, she needs to retire with our love, best wishes and thanks for a lifetime of unmatched service.
To think that a mob of coal loving Nats consider that they have a right to hold Australia to ransom demanding that another coal fired power station be built in FNQ is a ludicrous situation. These village idiots have been either duped by greedy lying dimwits or what I have no idea, but be assured, by the time the first ignitor is lit, coal fired power will most likely be illegal worldwide.
FNQ is well placed for the development of renewable generation, be it solar, tidal, wind, wave. Thousands of Megawatts are waiting, but the lnp luddites simply can’t see the forest for the trees.
I wish I’d known this was coming Kaye, I had a big dummy spit over on JL’s page.
Not a PM’s bootlace.
Ironic that there are homes with solar and batteries – like our own – that did all the essentials for the multiple days and nights (yes, and nights) the mains power was out during the fires. Supposedly these things don’t exist yet or don’t work yet. They may have tossed all the expert reports in the bins without reading but they are still about a decade behind their reading – if they haven’t tossed those out as well – on what renewable energy can do and how much it costs; they want to build new coal fired power stations on outdated “facts” about cost, availability and reliability.
Mattmommymademedoitcanavan is showing his lack of intelligence.
Former resources minister Matt Canavan described the renewable sector as “dole-bludging” this week, and would like to see a taxpayer-funded feasibility study into a new power station at Collinsville, south of Townsville.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-11/north-queensland-renewable-energy-ignored-by-federal-government/11951042
They want to build coal fired power stations because Gina has convinced them its in their own interests and hers.
Its as simple as that.
All other reasons, arguments, discourse, debate, explanations are just a useless waste of time and energy. Gina has paid for these fools to do what she wants them to do. QED.
I really shouldn’t limit my opprobrium to Barnaby and his doo wop boyband. The erstwhile leader of the Nats most definitely doesn’t want to be wedged by them on coal adoration plus there are a few Liberals like Kelly and Molan who will fly the coal flag regardless of what evidence anyone presents.
The Q3 report by AEMO said “Snowy reduced output by an average of around 190 MW, with historically low dam levels continuing through 2019.”
Yet Barnaby wants more dams, once again, without looking at the evidence. And Scotty keeps pointing at Snowy-Hydro 2.0 to pretend he gives a fluck. We don’t have enough water for the first Snowy Hydro system to work so more tunnels and dams is not going to help us during the drought years.
@KL: Barnyard wants dams in N NSW to supply water to mining ventures on the Black Soil Plains west from Tamworth, NOT for agriculture producing food and fibre. Remember, there are HUGE COAL and CSG deposits under the Black Soil Plains and Narrabri Pilliga Scrub that will require huge volumes of water for processing while the mining destroys the Great Artesian Basin water supply for agricultural enterprises on the western plains..
The Nazianal$ are the parry controlled by the mining lobby and no longer represent agricultural interests or farmers or graziers. OK, broad acre cotton growers are major donors to the party to protect their interesting water use practices.
Pilot, that was a lovely bit of personification of the Liddell power station. A gallant old girl struggling on with the help of her devoted minions, but denied a dignified end by LNP morons wanting even more, more,more. . .You do a beautiful dummy spit. Thank you.
Canavan strongly resembles the Dagwood Bumstead character in the old movie series based on the Blondie comic strip.
NEC re:
Heard that again and again. And from a variety of sources. But are there names, amounts, dates etc (hard data) available? Nothing really stands out (particular and peculiar to the Nationals) looking at the AEC published data. (Yes they are combined in Queensland as the LNP which adds to the difficulty.)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-03/political-donations-ahead-of-election-revealed/11923038
Some really interesting donations to some of the ‘minors’ available as well.
Our federal gubmint, a town of banjo playing in-bred village idiots run by King Cretin Clodhopper the First.
In addition to Joycettes is Melbourne Lib Katie Allen, on ABC Radio 774, asking for ‘open minds’, talking of Rumsfeldian ‘unknown unknowns etc.’ and promoting nuclear (in past hydrogen too), without any details, costings etc.
Seems about avoiding renewable sources and protecting the systems, infrastructure (investment) and future income streams of the fossil fuel sector and related.
Of course one is not suggesting that too many MPs have been ‘captured’…
Sheer idiocy that’s tirelessly promoted throughout the entirety of the Australian media. Including (unwittingly or not) the Guardian, which can always be counted on for verbatim click bait headlines, amplifying whatever Barnaby, et al sez, in big bold letters.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) noted in 2018 there was currently an “energy surplus” in north Queensland, and “further large-scale generator connections are unlikely to be efficient in north Queensland until existing thermal generation in central Queensland starts to retire” in the 2030s.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/11/scott-morrison-leaves-open-indemnification-of-new-coal-fired-power-station
But hey, who reads the stuff they write. Barnaby, George, LLew and Matt have a plan that the people who actually monitor and oversee this stuff could never fathom….I think it has something to do with aspiration for higher salaries but I could be wrong. Those guys might know something the experts don’t.
Re:
Perhaps there’s no might about it? That they win elections time after time (when rationality suggests they shouldn’t) indicates they’re good at their job – which is winning elections. As David Williamson explained recently:
But what would a playwriter know? Maybe quite a bit?
While it might be rational to be right (in some sense(s), it’s not necessarily good if you want to win elections. Morrison seems to know that. After all he did win the unwinnable election.
they are singing the song of nth queensland’s lament that the promised adani jobs have evaporated but fear not we will find them for you and pay adani and maybe palmer as well, as a quid pro quo???
The good thing is the lament will soon morph into a dirge. Any idea how, albo??
Yes MN,Morrison understands marketing where perception, image and underlying psychological needs are the keys to unlocking miracles and power, but then what when you have no ideas or vision. Power and ego – I have my portrait ! Joyce and the Joycettes (well written KL) are doing the same thing but in a more heinous and calculated way by supporting of group of unscrupulous oligarchs in their ongoing quest for money/control despite the undoubted detriment to the environment and the rest of us.
Interviews with Collinsville locals by ABC RN were revealing.
It seems that the population of Collinsville has dropped from 4000 to 1600 and quite naturally the locals don’t want to see the town die.
Of course parochial attitudes will dominate in the local area and the will be all in favour of the jobs a coalfired power station will bring.
But that’s not the question, we can’t save every small town with a defunct local coal mine by building a coalfired power station.
To even discuss this subject we must see the criteria adopted for the feasibility study.
The LNP are playing wedge like it is going out of style.
A sample of comments elsewhere re the High Court decision involving two aboriginal blokes locked up for being aboriginal, if you look at it ironically is also produce some massively weird Hansonite comments.
The place gets very strange.
On another tack, the ABC belled the cat as to what is behind the Pilliga gas frack rape, which is to produce very pricey gas for Sydney because we have to ship our gas in at half the cost from offshore because we won’t reserve Bass St gas at a fraction of the price. Go figure. Not even the Mafia would be so shameless.
Sounds weird?
Try to catch the ABC business show from last night. It shocked me to my bootstraps yet is being under reported or misreported to blue blazes.
The lies going down throughout this country at this time is truly astonishing. The placed gets nutsier and nutsier.
smirko has simple slogans that harmonise and require hard work to simplify the complex rebuttals billy failed at every level and albo hasn’t started and labor has wasted another year. Get to work, albo. or piss off.
ps
matters from my observation labor has fallen on the loonie sword to lose
pps
good freudian slop wally. respect for pauline
Ask yourself WHY there is never enough money for everything from dv women’s shelters to flood and fire mitigation and why ROBODEBT is employed to make up the deficit, or cuts to education and the ABC for the same reason (apart from keeping the public in the dark like mushrooms and bullshit):
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/corporate-scumbag-senator-slams-exxonmobil-for-not-paying-tax-20200211-p53zu7.html
Wam, i would love the bliss ignorance brings, but no lobotomies, even to be like Hanson, even if in my case it would only be a tiny operation.
true, wally, ignorance is bliss and I love thinking of your ignorance in respect for hanson but not Aborigines rather than malice but how do Maori people fit into your respect?????
ps
Loved the tax reference and packer’s I pay all the tax required of me still stings and his ilk still revel in the system of minimising tax. come to think of it what sort of franking would people like him get??
Wam, don’t forget Exxon is only one of the “top forty “companies identified as tax dodgers owing tens even hundreds of $billions.
Haven’t a clue what you mean about Maories and Hanson, but since you are about the place humbugging, Maories are ok but they reckon it is the Samoans you gotta watch out for.
I will offer this up for you to chew over.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-12/coal-seam-gas-import-or-mining-will-not-guarantee-lower-prices/11954268?section=business&fbclid=IwAR0lHotUMmwRStLXeI23ujctn6JDgTVCHD3XAJePfbTB8hAAXyIXnvuRZ9A
The Drum specifically censored me out on it, probably after I commented last week on the Stanthorpe Council re signing the same multinational who refused them access to water so residents could even bathe or have drinking water, when the Mayor herself was on the show.
Ok, so I know real men don’t drink water, but some times the kiddies like a little sip after knocking around.
You seem a loveable little fellow, am sure I should know you, but don’t forget all is not sweetness and light as the Hammered Country is rolled in its stupor, for every anything of value that could make it a good place for its kids in the future. Never mind, when the shit hits, always blame the Greens and the Unions.