Zero Emissions Australia? By Viv Forbes

     It may be possible for a perpetual committee of green bureaucrats to electrify Australia with a vast but flimsy spider-web of power lines connecting consumers to wind turbines, solar panels, lithium batteries and pumped-hydro batteries. In this wonder-world, electric scooters and mini-cars will be mandated and demand rationing will be imposed. But this costly, ramshackle UN dream-come-true will never be competitive with nearby industries in China, India and Japan using a powerful backbone of reliable low-cost nuclear, coal, gas and diesel power, decorated with bits of green tinsel to placate the energy commissars of the UN. These Asian tigers will get their coal from Mongolia, Indonesia and South Africa, their oil and gas from the Middle East and their uranium from Asia, Canada and Africa.