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Gas: a fossil fuel rises from the dead · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's Thursday, September twenty five, twenty twenty five. Donald Trump
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  Speaker 1: says climate change is a hoax and countries like Australia
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  Speaker 1: with ambitious net zero goals are falling victim to a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: green scam. Meanwhile, in New York, Anthony Albanezi overnight vigorously
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: defended his government's aggressive targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: The PM will be back in the US on October
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  Speaker 1: twenty for a formal meeting with Trump. After more than
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: a year of allegations of bullying and an affair, a
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: multimillion dollar lawsuit between the Super retail group and two
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: former executives turned whistleblowers has been settled out of court.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: The parent company of Super Cheap Auto, Rebel Sport and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: BCF says the settlement came in under the expected thirty
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  Speaker 1: to fifty million dollar price tag. We're on the path
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  Speaker 1: to net zero by twenty fifty, but we'll have to
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  Speaker 1: use gas to get there. That's the inescapable takeout from
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the people responsible for keeping the lights on. State Premier
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: is the energy market operator and the providers that feed
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  Speaker 1: into our grid, the network that makes life in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty five possible today. How gas went from just another
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  Speaker 1: fossil fuel to the essential ingredient in a clean energy future.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Here's the pattern of the world's weather changing god Sydney
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  Speaker 2: b Next.
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  Speaker 1: Sydney buried in snow, ice, skaters zipping underneath the Harbor Bridge.
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  Speaker 2: Natural gas gives your natural heat to see you through
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  Speaker 2: the most trying cold steps coss markets into every corner
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  Speaker 2: of your room.
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  Speaker 1: This is a TV ad for AGL from the early
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighties.
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  Speaker 2: Don't be left out in the cold.
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  Speaker 1: The product is something the industry calls natural gas, mainly
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: composed of methane extracted from underground and cooled until it
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: becomes a liquid. Climate alarmism is nothing new, and back
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: in the eighties, when the phrase global warming was just
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: entering the lexicon, gas companies could see they needed to
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: convince consumers their product was part of a future that
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: looked increasingly scary. New gas projects weren't being approved. Demand
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  Speaker 1: was winding down. Fast forward to twenty twenty five, and
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  Speaker 1: gas is still fighting for its future, except now it
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: looks like being the only fossil fuel to survive the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: transition to renewable energy, but do we have enough to
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: keep the lights on?
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  Speaker 3: My support for gas is underpinned by my desire for
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  Speaker 3: net zero.
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  Speaker 1: This is South Australian Premier Peter Malinowskis. He's begging the
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  Speaker 1: New South Wales Premier Chris Mins to fire up more
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  Speaker 1: gas production at a huge field in Narrabrii. It's been
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  Speaker 1: talked about for years but hasn't come online. Malanowskis wants
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  Speaker 1: New South Wales to match South Australia's push to find
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  Speaker 1: more gas and get it out of the ground.
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  Speaker 3: Now, the ECI purists that fill Instagram with screeds demanding
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  Speaker 3: an end to gas production, they should be careful what
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: they wish for. And for the rest of us, are
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  Speaker 3: we going to let energy policy in our country be
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  Speaker 3: determined by the socials or by the science. If there's
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: gas out there, this is the time to get it
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  Speaker 3: out of the ground.
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  Speaker 1: Cole is slowly shutting down and nobody's really fighting to
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  Speaker 1: save it. And in Australia, unlike Europe, nuclear power isn't
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  Speaker 1: filling the gap. Daniel Yesterman is boss of the Australian
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Energy Market operator They monitor energy coming into the grid
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  Speaker 1: and can direct power station operators to fire up fossil
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  Speaker 1: fuel or battery systems if the grid's in danger of instability,
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  Speaker 1: as Westerman says when it's cold, dark and still. Westerman says,
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  Speaker 1: as coal shuts down, we need to find a way
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  Speaker 1: to keep the grid from collapsing in times of demand surges,
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  Speaker 1: like when we all get home on a winter afternoon
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  Speaker 1: and put on our dryers, heaters, TVs and kettles and
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  Speaker 1: plugging our cars to recharge.
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  Speaker 4: And those gas turbines that Australia does need might burn
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  Speaker 4: fuel only five percent of the time as the ultimate
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  Speaker 4: backstop for reliability when it's cold, dark and still, but
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  Speaker 4: they can keep our power system stable and secure one
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  Speaker 4: hundred percent of the time just by spinning.
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  Speaker 1: AEMO says we're going to run out of gas for
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  Speaker 1: the East Coast domestic market by twenty twenty nine, and
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  Speaker 1: the federal government's looking at an East Coast reservation policy
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  Speaker 1: where some gas is quarantined for domestic use. Australia is
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  Speaker 1: capable of producing vast amounts of gas, but much of
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  Speaker 1: the existing supply is exported, even as prices soar for
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  Speaker 1: households here. Chris Minn says he gets it.
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  Speaker 5: Gas is a crucial part of the jigsaw puzzle.
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  Speaker 1: And the New South Wales premier, who's a jogging buddy
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  Speaker 1: of Melanowskis, says it's not his government holding up Narrabrie,
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  Speaker 1: which has been furiously opposed by environmental activists.
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  Speaker 5: I know it's a controversial issue in some quarters, but
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  Speaker 5: the project is incredibly important for our state. Narrabrie could
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  Speaker 5: provide half our gas needs in New South Wales, and
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  Speaker 5: considering we're currently producing basically nothing when it comes to
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  Speaker 5: gas that we consume in the state, it would be
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  Speaker 5: a huge help.
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  Speaker 1: Minn said. Part of the hold up is and owners
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  Speaker 1: who need to agree to pipelines connecting the gas field
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  Speaker 1: to the rest of the country.
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  Speaker 5: We need that project to go ahead because it's absolutely
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  Speaker 5: crucial to our industrial base, particularly in the Huna Valley.
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  Speaker 5: It's crucial for economic development, for jobs, for opportunities for
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  Speaker 5: young people, particularly as they're dealing with major challenges and
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  Speaker 5: an economic realignment in that part of the state. We
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  Speaker 5: don't need it as an excuse to avoid or delay renewables,
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  Speaker 5: but to back up the system as more of those
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  Speaker 5: renewables come online.
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  Speaker 1: The federal government says we're getting to net zero by
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  Speaker 1: twenty fifty. That means any greenhouse gas emissions like methane
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  Speaker 1: are reduced and offset, so we're effectively no longer contributing
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  Speaker 1: to climate change. But first, there's a new target the
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  Speaker 1: federal government set for twenty thirty five, just a decade away.
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  Speaker 1: That's a sixty two to seventy percent reduction in greenhouse
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  Speaker 1: gas emissions on two thousand and five levels. It's ambitious.
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  Speaker 6: We do need to recalibrate for the twenty thirty five.
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  Speaker 1: This is Kevin Gallagher, the boss of Resources Giant Santos.
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  Speaker 6: I don't quite understand the logic of why you'd make
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  Speaker 6: it more aggressive to thirty five rather than still on
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  Speaker 6: the street seem trajectory that we're on to twenty fifty.
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  Speaker 6: But whatever ends up being, we'll work with that. We
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  Speaker 6: just need clarity and consistency and we can work to that.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up. So what does all this mean for our
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  Speaker 1: hip pockets. You don't hear a lot of argument these
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  Speaker 1: days about whether climate change is real or not. Now
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  Speaker 1: the big conversation is about the price of electricity. The
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Australians Chris Yuelman interviews out Australian Premier Peter malanowskis at
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  Speaker 1: Energination and Chris wanted to know when all our bills
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: will be getting cheaper.
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  Speaker 7: Well, Premier, thank you very much for that. And I
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  Speaker 7: can say that I think the thing that concerns most
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  Speaker 7: people is the cost of electricity. It is whether you
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  Speaker 7: were in the industry or whether you were a household
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  Speaker 7: And can you tell us why the cost of electricity
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  Speaker 7: is not going to come down until the price of
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  Speaker 7: gas comes down.
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  Speaker 3: Or because gas is the center of the price within
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  Speaker 3: the market. Now you look at electricity prices around the
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  Speaker 3: country and you know they have been going in the
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  Speaker 3: wrong direction. But you know, we've had this global experiment, Chris,
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  Speaker 3: where we took gas out of the market following the
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  Speaker 3: tragic events in Ukraine. So we took rushing gas out
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  Speaker 3: of the market and prices spiked. And that was particularly
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  Speaker 3: an acute in Australia because it's the last enter in
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  Speaker 3: the market within then m that sets the price, and
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  Speaker 3: that's principally in Australia gas.
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  Speaker 7: But as you have demonstrated, as Germany has demonstrated, as
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  Speaker 7: the UK has demonstrated, as California is demonstrating that putting
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  Speaker 7: more wind and sold on the grid does not bring
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  Speaker 7: down the price of electricity because there needs to be
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  Speaker 7: a firm in capacity in it will always be the
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  Speaker 7: last pricetter.
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  Speaker 3: Which is why we need more gas, which is.
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  Speaker 7: Why we need just that that's often lost in this
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  Speaker 7: arguments more win, more solar equals tip of power. It doesn't,
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  Speaker 7: does it not.
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  Speaker 3: When you've done that experiment, not without the gas. That's
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  Speaker 3: exactly right, and this is why you know, South Australia
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  Speaker 3: is an important part or has an important story to
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  Speaker 3: tell globally. You know, our ambitions for and pursuit of
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  Speaker 3: net zero is principled in my view, but we've also
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  Speaker 3: had the lived experience of how it can be attained
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  Speaker 3: and the risks of not having gas being part of
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  Speaker 3: the equation.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: The Australian breaks all the big yums about the energy
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: transition and you can check it all out live at
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Vaustralian dot com.
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  Speaker 5: A