By TONY MOBILIFONITIS
MATT Keane, the former NSW Liberal Party Environment Minister set the insanity in motion when he pledged to make half of the private vehicles in the state electric.
The matter of how much electricity it would take to charge millions of EVs on a typical week night didn’t enter the mind of this lame-brained Liberal. Perhaps he thought it would happen during the magical year 2030, when – as we’ve so solemnly predicted before – pixies and unicorns will prance in pristine net-zero pastures.
This is the same wet-behind-the-ears Mr Keane, who along with the Greens and Labor, would shut down the state’s coal-fired power stations that currently provide up to 70% of the state’s electricity, because they want the state to be “net zero” by 2035.
But don’t you worry folks, these geniuses believe wind and solar will fill the gap … at least when the sun shines, the wind blows and the batteries are charged. But don’t mention the gas-fired power stations required to ensure the “renewable energy” network actually works.
This insanity has escalated under the state’s Labor government, who announced on February 6th that they will – like Jacinda Ardern’s Maoist Labor-Green muppets in Kiwiland – draw up legislation to ban offshore oil and gas exploration in NSW waters. The Libs are actually boasting that they had a bill to do this in June 2023.
And of course Keanie the greenie and his Liberals, in cahoots with the NSW Greens, actually think it’s a great idea. One can only wonder what drives these elected representatives to think like schoolkids on an environmental excursion. Perhaps most of them have already been thoroughly worked over by that brainwashing system.
What ever happened to Liberals with an ounce of common sense and a few remaining conservative ideals? And what happened to the Labor Party unionists who like the idea of jobs and industry? They apparently left town too.
One Nation and a few Fishers, Farmers and Shooters types and maybe a few independents are all that are left to represent common sense amidst this collection of brain-dead buffoons in the NSW Parliament.
Meanwhile the FFS party are fighting another act of insanity by the Climate Change and Environment Minister Penny Sharpe, to ban catching blue gropers. Hello Ms Sharpe? Are you there or on some other planet? And what ever happened to good old solid rural National Party people? Have they turned green too?
But of course the ironically named Minister Sharpe thinks banning oil and gas exploration is a wonderful idea. After all, what sensible, modern economy would want reserves of that smelly petrolly, dieselly, oily stuff when most kindy kids will tell you that the world is “twansitioning to renewobbles”? God help us. Yes, these politicians really do live in a fairyland world of gay pride marches and Earth Days.
“We know an overwhelming majority of people in NSW do not support offshore mining,” the minister spouted. “The passage of this bill will give certainty that our government is prioritising environmental protection and our own local interests. This bill is a sensible amendment to our legislation to protect NSW against the risks of offshore mining.”
So, is this prize dimwit suggesting that fracking over the state’s productive farmland (highly unpopular with many farmers) is the only option to get the gas that NSW needs? Or will they, like the deep green Marxist morons of Victoria, move to ban local use of gas altogether?
It seems like they will because the dull Minister Sharpe says her bill “will make it impossible for energy companies to carry out other developments related to offshore oil and gas exploration (such as pipelines) within the state.”
According to Ms Sharpe the NSW government doesn’t want to risk “major environmental disasters” such as oil spills, as well as the perennial, childishly stupid “greenhouse gas emissions” allegedly associated with petroleum extraction.
The Liberals’ Shadow Environment Minister Kellie Sloane, following in the footsteps of her comrade Keanie, “questioned why the state Labor government did not take action seven months ago with their bill”. But she conceded that “Labor has finally seen the light when it comes to protecting NSW coastal waters”.
News Flash Liberals, Labor and Greens: Once upon a time governments pursued policies called “economic development” and “resource security”. The idea, Mesdames Sharpe and Sloane, was that governments did things that encouraged jobs, investment and economic activity, because that’s what makes things work. It’s called real wealth creation.
But yes, in this age of “sustainable development”, that you learned about in school, we know that you believe economic development is now a very bad, bad thing “because it produces global greenhouse gas emissions!” Yes Kellie, we know you and Penny really do believe this green garbage.
And then comes Labor’s Central Coast Minister David Harris, who made the stunning prediction that “local communities would be better off under the new bill”. “This is about providing communities with certainty that is in the best interest of NSW as well as protecting the NSW coastal waters and marine environments,” the blockhead blurted out.
Thankfully, in the bigger picture, some energy producers like Advent Energy will continue their exploration activities because they can still operate in Commonwealth waters – unless the federal chief climate clown, Minister Chris Bowen, gets the same idea as Sloane and company, which is not beyond the realms of possibility either.
Advent Energy executive director David Breeze said his company operates under the Petroleum Exploration Permit 11 (PEP-11). He pointed out that “Numerous reports show that NSW faces a gas supply shortfall within the next four years” but PEP-11 could possibly supply NSW with the bulk of its gas needs for 20 years.
Of course, the drooling, imbecilic brigade of NSW climate clowns would see this in a negative light, because, heck, who needs that evil gas for BBQs, cooking, rapid household and industrial water heating, manufacturing or steel-cutting torches at building sites, in engineering workshops or mechanics’ garages?
Samantha McCulloch, CEO of the Australian Energy Producers peak industry body, criticised the new legislation for not quite the right reason. She says it ignores “the critical role of gas under the net zero transition”. Yes, gas ensures the renewables network actually delivers electricity when wind and solar are offline or struggling, but she shouldn’t be endorsing net zero in any measure.
However, she did acknowledge “the importance of new gas supply in ensuring energy security and reducing pressures on prices” aka economic common sense that has evaporated from the minds of MPs in the three major NSW political parties.
“Report after report from independent agencies such as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Energy Market Operator have warned of approaching supply shortfalls and identified the need for new east coast gas supply–especially in NSW and Victoria,” she told The Epoch Times.
“Blanket bans unnecessarily limit sources of gas when existing regulations provide an appropriate framework to determine conditions for exploration and development.” Indeed, common sense – the very thing now in extremely short supply in NSW politics.
