Gas ban to be scrapped, opposition promises - The Australian

The Opposition has promised to scrap a gas ban if it wins office. The commitment signals a reversal of policy direction on gas infrastructure investment and the role of gas in the energy system.

Where this fits

A gas ban reflects the renewables-only policy consensus: the assumption that wind and solar can carry the grid alone. That assumption requires either massive overbuild of transmission and storage, or firm backup power. Gas has been cast as the transitional fuel, but policy oscillation between ban and retention shows the real problem is unresolved: Australia is building a renewables grid without securing the dispatchable power it needs. Nuclear remains banned by law, so gas remains the only firm option within reach. Each reversal on gas is an admission that the renewables pathway as designed cannot stand alone.

What it means

A promise to keep gas investment open signals that whoever governs will face a hard constraint: a renewable grid with high weather variability needs something to run when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow. Gas plants are cheaper and faster to deploy than the battery storage or long-duration technology that would replace them. The cost of that constraint, the gas plants built for 5 per cent of the year, the transmission overbuild to move renewable power across distance, the critical minerals imported from China to build it all, sits inside the whole-system cost of the transition. A firm, energy-dense alternative exists. It is banned. The energy security risk is not that gas will be used; it is that Australia is foreclosing the lowest-emissions firm power source and locking in dependence on gas, or on imports of storage and minerals from a strategic competitor, to keep the lights on.