This is a transformative moment for Australian energy security. Nuclear power has been banned in Australia for over 20 years, and yet, despite its benefits, no major party has had the guts to challenge it.
Labor and the Greens are bogged down in climate madness, closing coal fired power stations at a truly alarming pace and leaving Australia dangerously short of baseload power generation. At the same time they’re still stuck in the 1970’s hippy era of anti-nuclear hysteria, leaving no viable alternatives except wind and solar.
However, Peter Dutton has used his budget reply speech to push for nuclear, a clean, safe, climate-friendly means of baseload generation:
Peter Dutton has put nuclear power and gas at the heart of the Coalition’s future energy blueprint, in a direct challenge to Labor’s climate change policy, and will wave through the majority of Jim Chalmers’ $14.6bn cost-of-living package.
Following the closure of the Liddell coal-fired power station and rising concerns over blackouts and gas shortages, Mr Dutton declared that in the 21st century “any sensible government must consider small modular nuclear as part of the energy mix”. The Liberal leader warned that Labor’s climate change plan was putting Australia “on the wrong energy path”, driving up electricity and grocery bills for households, and threatening to shut down or force businesses offshore.
“We want to see emissions go down,” Mr Dutton said. “Next-generation, small modular nuclear technologies are safe, reliable, cost-effective, can be plugged into existing grids where we have turned off coal, and emit zero emissions.”
Mr Dutton rebuked Labor – led by longtime anti-nuclear advocate Anthony Albanese – for being “happy” to embrace AUKUS nuclear submarines while refusing to “consider the benefits of onshore small and micro modular reactors”.
This will be a major point of differentiation between Labor and the Coalition going forward, and a clear choice for Australians who do not wish to pay through the nose for electricity from inefficient and unreliable green renewables.
Also, despite the fact that I believe electric cars are a major folly, at least with nuclear we might have enough baseload generation to keep charging the bloody things.
Link.
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