Net Zero Pulling The Plug On Australian Manufacturing

“Australia’s leaders need to wake up to the reality of the net zero-led energy crisis that is driving our manufacturing sector to the brink of collapse,” said Dr Kevin You, Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.

As reported in The Australian: the increasing cost and dwindling supply of coal, compounded with the unreliability of renewables, is driving massive increases in wholesale electricity prices.

Gregg Everett, CEO of Delta Electricity, operator of the critical Vales Point coal-fired power station in the Hunter Valley, said;

“There will be consequences of this. There are commercial and industrial customers who just won’t be able to keep going”.

Recent research by the IPA identified that over the past decade, for every one job created in the renewables sector, five jobs have been destroyed in the manufacturing sector.

Several times last week, the Tomago aluminium smelter in NSW’s Hunter Valley had to pull back on its operations at the request of its power provider, and Alcoa’s Portland smelter in Victoria also had to curtail its operation on Thursday. 

“As the obsession with unreliable renewables continues to push reliable and affordable baseload power generators off the grid, electricity supply to large customers is becoming increasingly precarious,” said Dr You.

“The government’s continuing commitment to net zero is ushering in Soviet-style energy rationing and shutting down what remains of our manufacturing industry. This will cost Australians their jobs.”

“Without reliable and affordable energy, Australia will never have the sovereign manufacturing capability to produce the vital goods we need to operate and defend ourselves as an advanced, first-world nation,” said Dr You.