Revelations that NSW faced rolling blackouts because of Liberal and Labor\u2019s planned early closure of the Eraring coal-fired power station are a cruel joke, Family First NSW Upper House candidate Lyle Shelton said today.
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\u00a0\u201cThe major parties\u2019 reckless obsession with net zero is putting pressure on families and businesses are being left dangerously exposed,\u201d Mr Shelton said.
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\u201cWhile the federal Liberals may have dumped net zero, State Liberals who if in government actually decide if reliable power sources are shut, are still in love with next zero and won\u2019t drop it despite the pain it causes families and business.\u201d
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Reporting by The Australian shows that the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) forecast a rising risk of rolling blackouts in NSW in the absence of the Eraring Power Station \u2014 only to later advise there would be no reliability gap.
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\u201cIt would be laughable if it wasn\u2019t so serious,\u201d Mr Shelton said.
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\u201cIn what universe do politicians bring a state like NSW to the brink? Origin Energy\u2019s decision to extend Eraring\u2019s life, with the Minns\u2019 Government\u2019s quick agreement, was the only thing that averted a Liberal-induced disaster.
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\u201cUnder former Liberal Energy Minister Matt Kean, the Coalition wanted to shut down Eraring early as part of its net zero crusade. Now Labor has inherited the mess and appears just as determined to press on with unreliable wind and solar factories across country NSW.\u201d
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Mr Shelton said families are rightly asking how Australia\u2019s most populous state could face rolling blackouts in a country blessed with some of the world\u2019s largest coal and gas reserves.
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\u201cThe fact that NSW could have been plunged into blackouts if Eraring had closed shows how fragile the system has become under net zero ideology,\u201d he said.
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Centre for Independent Studies energy director Aidan Morrison has exposed the seriousness of the risk.
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\u201cIt\u2019s hard to understate how badly the public, and policymakers, have been misled,\u201d Mr Morrison told The Australian. \u201cThe narrative that renewables are on track to replace coal power has been demolished by AEMO\u2019s own analysis.
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\u201cThe reality that NSW would have been plunged into rolling blackouts if Eraring closed in August 2027 has never dawned on the public. AEMO\u2019s data shows expected unserved energy in November 2027 about a thousand times the regulated level the system\u2019s meant to achieve \u2026 the equivalent of the whole state blacked out for about an hour each week.\u201d
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Mr Shelton said both major parties must abandon net zero before more damage is done.
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\u201cFamily First will campaign for Labor and Liberal to dump net zero, halt the roll-out of industrial-scale wind and solar factories in regional NSW, and rebuild the state\u2019s coal and gas generation capacity \u2014 with a clear pathway to zero-emissions nuclear energy in the future.
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\u201cMums and dads struggling with the cost of living don\u2019t need blackouts on top of soaring power bills. NSW deserves reliable, affordable electricity \u2014 not ideological experiments,\u201d Mr Shelton said.
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Revelations that NSW faced rolling blackouts because of Liberal and Labor\u2019s planned early closure of the Eraring coal-fired power station are a cruel joke, Family First NSW Upper House candidate Lyle Shelton said today.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe major parties\u2019 reckless obsession with net zero is putting pressure on families and businesses are being left dangerously exposed,\u201d Mr Shelton … Continue reading “Mums and dads struggling with the cost of living don\u2019t need blackouts on top of soaring power bills – Labor and Liberals\u2019 net zero obsession pushes NSW to the brink of blackouts”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37580,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37579\/revisions\/37580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}