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Ryan Bridge: Looks like the LNG deal's dead in the water, for now · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Energy is everything, but you cannot have your cake and
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  Speaker 1: eat it too. The LNG terminal is on ice until
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: after the election. Shane Jones told me last week pretty
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: much that. Seymour has said pretty much that. And Brown
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: now reluctantly looks like he has said pretty much that too.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: So it hasn't been greenlit by Cabinet at this point.
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  Speaker 1: There is no way a contract of that sort would
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  Speaker 1: be signed by what is basically a caretaker government at
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  Speaker 1: this point. The Methanex closure buys us a bit of time,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: but how much, we're not really sure. The thing that
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  Speaker 1: they said we need, i.e. the terminal that would be
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: underwritten to the tune of a billion dollars, is now
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: at the whims of the election. More importantly, the coalition talks.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: It's a bargaining chip now. Businesses and factories don't close
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  Speaker 1: just because of costs. They close because of uncertainty. Investment
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: dries up. You need reassurance that you've got the inputs
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: to actually produce the outputs. How many more closures will
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: we see before we have options and backup options signed,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: sealed and delivered? In Australia, they're just waking up to
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the fact that data centres run 24-7 and therefore when
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow during
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: a cold winter's evening, these beasts need a power source.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: There's an energy conference on there this week and the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: business leaders there are telling Albanese you might need some
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: coal or gas as backups to operate these centres. By
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the way, he wants $ 200 billion worth of data centres built.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: The problem with politicians is that we vote for them.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: To appeal to us, they do and say things that
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: aren't necessarily in our long-term interest. Case in point, Trump's
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: looking at a diesel export ban to lower prices in
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the US to try and lower the gas price ahead
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: of the midterms. The only upshot, if we can call
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: it that, of this year's squeeze on oil and 2022's
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: electricity crunch is that voters are alive to the fact
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: that we actually need a plan to keep the country running,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: preferably one that gets delivered. For more from Early Edition
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talk ZB from
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: 5 a.m. weekdays or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.