Environmental approvals process kicks off for giant transmission line Coalition has vowed to scrap

The Environment Effects Statement for Victoria's VNI West transmission line has entered public review less than two months before the state election. The 240 kilometre double-circuit line, designed to connect Victoria's grid with New South Wales and carry renewable generation from the north west, has seen its cost estimate blow out from $3.6 billion to $7.6 billion. The project crosses more than 200 farming and landholder properties. The Coalition opposition has pledged to cancel it, as has One Nation. Public submissions close 16 November.

Where this fits

VNI West is the physical infrastructure cost of a renewables-only grid. The line itself is necessary because solar and wind output depends on weather and location. Some 8.5 gigawatts of solar and wind projects need connection along this route alone. The cost blowout and easement footprint are neither accident nor scandal. They are the signature of the firm dispatchable alternative being unavailable: without baseload nuclear or gas, you build transmission overbuild to move intermittent power from where the wind blows to where demand sits. This is the hidden system cost renewables advocates do not price in headline megawatt-hour rates.

What it means

A scrapped VNI West leaves those 8.5 gigawatts stranded or curtailed, forcing more battery storage and more gas peaking plant to firm the shortfall. A built VNI West locks in dependence on weather-dependent supply and the gas fleet that will back it for decades. Either way, Australia pays. The grid architecture being chosen now, transmission overbuild plus fossil gas firming, all powered by supply chains owned by Beijing, is the costly, sovereignty-poor path. It is the path being taken because firm nuclear generation is legislatively forbidden.