‘Left us all exposed’: Veteran journalist Liam Bartlett unleashes over fuel crisis

Liam Bartlett has continued his long-running renewables crusade, taking Energy Minister Chris Bowen to task again over Australia’s fuel crisis.

Veteran journalist Liam Bartlett has taken Chris Bowen to task over Australia’s fuel crisis, warning the Energy Minister‘s “myopic green dream” will “send the country into bankruptcy”.

A fortnight after the pair came to blows at a press conference – during which Bartlett accused Mr Bowen, among other things, of being “a hypocrite” – the Channel 7 Spotlight reporter carried on his long-running renewables fight with a blistering op-ed on Monday morning.

“How can it be that such an energy-rich nation manages to find itself vulnerable in an energy crisis?” Bartlett wrote, referring to the knock-on effects of the US-Israel war against Iran, and the latter nation’s Strait of Hormuz blockade.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s ‘myopic green dream … is now set to send the country into bankruptcy’, 7 reporter Liam Bartlett has claimed. Picture: NewsWire/Nikki Short
“We have larger deposits of natural energy resources, through coal, gas and oil than almost any other country on the planet and yet, here we are, struggling to deliver to suburban bowsers around the country. How is that possible?

“Of course, all of these are rhetorical questions because our road to the global fuel begging bowl is a one-way street to the office of energy minister Chris Bowen.”
Bartlett accused Mr Bowen of being ‘a hypocrite’ during a heated exchange at a press conference earlier this month. Picture: NewsWire/Gaye Gerard
Bartlett continued: “The myopic green dream of Mr Bowen and his co-cabinet ideologues has left us all exposed as they’ve driven us into renewables with the kind of zealotry usually reserved for religious extremists.”

“Indeed, the mad mullahs of the Iranian regime would be hard pressed to be more single minded and lacking in balance,” he wrote.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced his new climate change target – to slash greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70 per cent by 2035 – last September.

According to expert advice that underpinned the plan, electricity prices could tumble by $1000 a year for Australian households over the next decade as renewables are rolled out, though Mr Albanese refused to back the dollar figure himself at the time.

‘Our coal industry is treated like a leper’

In his op-ed, Bartlett wrote: “As for the truth? Well, for the past four years we’ve been told our power bills would come down by 250 dollars and that renewables were a cheap source of energy. Both whoppers that are right up there with assurances that the sun will always shine and the wind will always blow.”

“Bowen’s fanatical approach, aided and abetted by a conga line of true believers and latte-sipping Teal supporters is now set to send the country into bankruptcy.”
‘We certainly won’t have to wait for another war in the Middle East to experience our next energy crisis,’ Bartlett wrote. Picture: Steve Pohlner
Accusing Mr Bowen of “a total lack of accountability and transparency”, Bartlett said he also “fail(ed) to disclose the human cost of creating our renewable energy grid and the danger of ceding control of it to the one country that has been allowed to dominate the supply chain; China”.

“As of last years official statistics, 57 per cent of all the coal mined in the world was burnt by China while our coal industry domestically is treated like a leper,” Bartlett wrote.

“Independent energy tsars tell us its possible for Australia to be self-sufficient but renewables have been prioritised over any fossil fuel opportunity, in either exploration or processing.
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“The clear result is national energy security has been hijacked on the altar of green philosophy and effectively, that means green handcuffs are now placed on the country’s energy independence.

“If nothing changes, the future is clear. We certainly won’t have to wait for another war in the Middle East to experience our next energy crisis.”

Workers install solar panels at a photovoltaic power station in Huaian city, in east China’s Jiangsu province. Picture: Imaginechina via AP Images

China and its renewables bet ‘the actual winner of the war’

In an analysis also published on Monday, however, ABC finance guru Alan Kohler argued that China’s pivot to solar energy and other renewables was paying off.

With no clear indication on when Iran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz for good, “the rest of us will be counting the cost in higher fuel costs, higher fertiliser and food prices, higher inflation and interest rates, and a weaker economy”.

“China – the actual winner of the war – will be enjoying a surge of global interest in its solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles,” Kohler wrote.

“Meanwhile, in Australia, last week’s fire at Viva Energy’s oil refinery in Geelong was an exquisite metaphor for two decades of energy policy failure.”

The facility, which contributes 10 per cent to the national stockpile and more than 50 per cent to Victoria’s fuel supply, is one of Australia’s two remaining oil refineries, processing up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day.

“This is not good timing, and this is a setback,” Mr Bowen told a press conference on Thursday, though stressed that “government and industry are working very closely together to manage the impacts of this fire and to ensure ongoing fuel security for Australians”.

“Our illusions of energy grandeur went up in flames at the same time as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in Brunei trying to do another ‘gas for diesel’ deal, because Australia is the biggest consumer of diesel, per capita, in the world, and oil is needed from the Strait of Hormuz to make it,” Kohler wrote.
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“China is 13th on the list with a fraction of Australia’s consumption, because most people there are driving EVs, getting deliveries from electric trucks and travelling by high-speed electric rail, all fed by renewable energy.

“That’s because in 2004, China decided to reduce its reliance on the Strait of Hormuz.”
Most people in China ‘are driving EVs, getting deliveries from electric trucks and travelling by high-speed electric rail, all fed by renewable energy’. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Naomi Jellicoe
 
ABC finance guru Alan Kohler said China ‘will be enjoying a surge of global interest in its solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles’. Picture: ABC
Decisions by consecutive federal governments that “further entrenched Australia’s addiction to diesel” coincided with China’s investment in high-speed rail, with 54,000km as of 2026, “more than twice the total in the rest of the world combined”; and the 2009 launch of its “Ten Cities, Thousand Vehicles” (TCTV) program to promote EVs.

“No official estimate has been made of the Chinese government’s total investment in high-speed rail, EVs and renewable energy (in 2009), but it could be something like $US4 trillion ($5.6 trillion) – double its GDP at the time,” Kohler wrote.

“The equivalent of that for Australia would have been $1.5 trillion.

“The government’s decision from the 2004 energy white paper was to make an investment of $500 million, which was supposed to leverage another $1 billion in private money.

“That total of $1.5 billion would have been exactly one-thousandth of the equivalent of what China spent on securing its energy future, but the money was to have been directed at carbon capture and storage – to protect the coal industry – not at renewable energy or EVs.”