Hello
Thank you for subscribing. I appreciate the effort because I’m sure - like me - you have plenty of other distractions. But as a result of you choosing to ‘opt in’. I feel it safe to assume you have at least a passing interest in energy and the whims of politicians that affect our lives to an enormous degree.
My first task is to thank and acknowledge Chris Uhlmann for his recommendation. I consider Chris a friend and I hope my efforts on this platform do him justice.
An introduction: I’m an electrical engineer who grew up in rural north Queensland, south-west of Townsville. I have a black belt in karate (non-practising) but have been practising guitar for 30 years. I’ve spent more of my working life in hi-vis than out, with the privilege of pending my career neck deep in large expensive complex machines, and the dubious claim of working with a large variety of managers, engineers and technicians. I’m a troubleshooter, and my working life has been spent making these big machines work.
I am not a natural writer - my skills appear to lie in ruthlessly identifying the logical conclusion of things, and any perceived writing ability should be attributed to my wife Sonia who’s ‘constructive criticism’ shall we say ‘molded’ my capabilities.
One Christmas I was given a brain tester book designed to identify left or right brain dominance. Left is supposed to be logical and right is supposed to be creative. The test diagnosed me as using both sides of my brain in equal measure. Later on my chartered engineer interview added flippant to the mix. Whatever. Pseudo-science and psychology matter less than real life outcomes. Policy-by-bureaucrat affects our lives more than individual personalities can. On the flipside uneducated uninvested consumers can only make it worse.
I’ll upload new content here soon, but first it feels right to set the scene with previously published articles - I hope you find time to give it a go.
Ok, onto the big stuff…
Energy is important. Without diminishing other important policy areas e.g. health, education, tax, immigration, censorship (don’t get too dark…!), bad energy policy will be the defining issue of the 2000s. The world will be fortunate if it does not become the defining issue of the 2050s.
Forget the negative impacts of climate change, forget the lingering impacts of COVID on freedom, economies, kids and excess death rates. Downgrade the kinetic conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine and the civil unrest in the United States. Instead, take a step back - hover at 50,000 feet - and briefly put the global timeline on fast forward.
Start around 20 years ago when 1980s positivity and investment tapered off in the West. Energy, primarily electricity, was cheap and abundant. Consider the absurdity where in Queensland (Australia) the state-owned distribution network company had their own retail shopfronts where they sold air-conditioners. Digest that for a minute, in the context of today’s energy cost and frugality.
My brain hurts trying to join the dots that got us from there to here.
In this initial post I don’t have any great observations or insights beyond this - the cheapest possible electricity system is a baseload dominated system. Instead I humbly ask the reader - what do you think about when you think about energy? I recall Robert Bryce’s “iron law of electricity” and Doomberg’s “energy is the economy’”
These ideas resonate because of their essential truth. Ben Shapiro famously said, “facts don’t care about your feelings” which is true for almost everything that matters, the only exception being ethereal concepts like love and friendship. Andrew Breitbart said that ‘politics is downstream of culture’.
These are callsigns, essential truths. My own addition to the mix is, “which part of the bill do renewables reduce”. Something to consider.