
High power costs: Can we unplug decisions of the past?

Australia is a global giant when it comes to energy; with vast coal, oil, gas and uranium reserves and unused land area that’s climate-ready for renewables such as wind and solar. So why is there a decade-long and counting energy supply shortage for industry and households, especially on the east coast, that’s pushing up our electricity costs? Momentum to move away from fossil fuels into cleaner energy sources has been growing for decades and the first cab off the rank to move away from has been coal, one of the most polluting energy sources on the planet. While global miners such as BHP (ASX : BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX : RIO) have moved away from coal production, energy intensive countries such as China, Germany and India - while purporting to maintain efforts towards zero carbon emissions - have actually increased the construction of coal-fired energy plants. Even America has now decided to rekindle its - as Trump has put it - “beautiful clean coal” industry, undoing a decades-long move away from its use in power generation. Find out more: Trump to revive coal for AI despite clean energy boom Bonkers, right? Well, there are reasons behind their moves, and they’re largely due to high consumption - all three countries




