The Government and its Covid Commission are pushing a $6 billion gas pipeline while new energy regulator, Clare Savage, calls into question the future of the gas networks. Meanwhile Australians still pay more for gas than customers overseas pay for Australian gas. Michael West reports on the momentous upheaval in energy.

It is one short sentence but a sentence with remarkable implications for the nation:

“If not, the economic life of the assets could be limited.”

The new chair of the Australian Energy Regulator, Clare Savage, is saying that if the gas transmission networks do not convert to hydrogen, these assets may be stranded; that’s many billions of dollars in gas pipelines stranded.

“She is calling time on a multi-billion dollar industry,” says energy analyst Bruce Robertson.

The candid assessment from Clare Savage is even more remarkable considering the Government, with the connivance of its Covid-19 Commission, is pushing plans to build a $6 billion gas pipeline from Western Australia to the East Coast.

via A Savage Call: energy tsar calls time on Australia’s gas cartel – Michael West