The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Finkel Review. With the current state public discussion around energy issues, this review has the potential to steer Australia back towards a policy path that looks after the interests of energy consumers and the environment. Australia’s energy future should centre on renewable energy

Development of unconventional gas in the NT risks connecting the NT to the chaos in wider Australian gas markets. As the nation becomes a major gas exporter with record production there have been no winners.

Welcome to the first issue of the The Audit – Electricity Update, the companion publication to the National Energy Emissions Audit Report.   Each issue of Electricity Update will also contain a more detailed discussion of one or two particular topics relating to the electricity system which have assumed particular importance in the period prior

Download The Audit (June 2017) The Australia Institute has launched the National Energy Emissions Audit (The Audit), written by respected energy analyst and ANU Honorary Associate Professor, Dr Hugh Saddler, which tracks Australia’s emissions of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels. The National Energy Emissions Audit will be published on a quarterly basis,

Report calls for Tasmania to become energy self-reliant and an exporter of renewable energy. A new report from Hobart-based think tank The Australia Institute Tasmania identifies an opportunity for Tasmania to take advantage of its unique energy assets which could deliver cheaper local electricity.  The report finds that Tasmania’s link to the National Electricity Market

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) is a $5 billion government fund for concessional financing to build infrastructure in northern Qld, NT and WA. The default financing mechanism is a loan. Adani has applied for a concessional loan of nearly $1 billion from the NAIF for a rail line so that it can export coal

The Australian Government has put $1.3 billion of taxpayers’ money towards Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) initiatives since 2003, with zero large scale operational projects to show for it. A new report from The Australia Institute’s, Money for nothing, has found that despite years of generous taxpayer funding, there are no large-scale CCS projects operating

A new ReachTEL poll of 1,618 Queenslanders shows strong opposition to state and federal subsidies for the Adani coal proposal, including among LNP and One Nation voters. -Polling results in attachment below- 59% of Queenslanders oppose Federal and State taxpayers’ money being used to fund Adani’s project. 37% said they were strongly opposed and just

The Southern Highlands has a diverse economy, with its band of towns and its proximity to major cities giving it an economic structure similar to NSW as a whole, but with a special focus on tourism, agriculture and manufacturing. Local businesses and community members are concerned about the potential effects of the proposed Hume Coal

Australia’s export credit agency, Efic, is a government-owned, taxpayer-backed organisation that aims to assist Australian exporters with financial services. Efic is currently considering a loan to a South African coal project. The Boikarabelo coal project has approval to produce 32 million tonnes of raw coal each year. The development of this project would likely contribute

New polling from The Australia Institute shows almost two thirds (64%) of Australians oppose a taxpayer-funded subsidised loan to the Adani coal mine project, as reports emerge the Queensland Government is considering an additional $320 million subsidy to Adani in the form of a ‘royalty holiday’. —For polling brief see attachement below— “Providing a billion

The economic assessment of the Narrabri Gas Project is misleading and does not comply with NSW assessment guidelines. The benefit cost analysis by consultants GHD is contradicted by the proponents’ financial statements and analysis commissioned by the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Media reports suggest that the Palaszczuk Government intends to give Adani a discount on the royalties the company would pay to extract the state’s coal.  If the Queensland government settles on a royalty holiday for Adani’s proposed coal mine, similar to that used earlier by the NSW government, the cost to Queenslanders will be almost

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Scientific inquiry into hydraulic fracturing in the Northern Territory. Our submission focuses on Theme 7.7 of the Background and Issues Paper, economic impacts and also addresses other themes that the Institute has conducted research on.

Development of large coal mines in Queensland’s Galilee Basin will reduce thermal coal prices. This also reduces royalty revenue received by NSW. The Adani project alone is likely to reduce NSW revenue by nearly $50 million per year. The NSW government should oppose subsidies to Adani.

A new report by the Melbourne Energy Institute, commissioned by The Australia Institute, shows that coal seam gas (CSG) extraction could be significantly increasing methane emissions from underground gas deposits. The report raises questions as to the role CSG plays in causing gas bubbles in Queensland’s Condamine River. Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham ignited the bubbling

The Wallarah 2 Coal Project (Project) proposes to produce 4 to 5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of thermal coal for export. The project is located on the Central Coast of NSW near Wyong. The proponent is Kores, a South Korean government owned corporation. The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to

As the mining boom winds down and the mining clean up boom begins, mine site rehabilitation and mine abandonment are emerging as major issues for Australian communities, governments and taxpayers. All stakeholders will need information on the status of mines and their rehabilitation efforts to ensure this is carried out in a way that does

Polling conducted by Research Now for The Australia Institute reveals continued popularity of renewable energy

The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has released a new advertising campaign titled ‘Making the future possible’. The campaign involves two videos and a website promoting mining’s role in the Australian economy and the benefits of new coal-fired electricity generators. However, some claims are incorrect and many are misleading, being presented without context and conflating

Despite overseeing $5 billion in subsidised loans, the NAIF has limited staffing and internal documentation. Secrecy around Adani proposal Handful of staff to assess $5 billion worth of projects Lack of guidance documents for Investment Decisions No detailed Application and Assessment process Limited governance policies which they refused to release Secrecy about NAIF Board decisions

Despite widespread coverage, little is known about the NAIF or the $1bn NAIF loan proposal for Adani’s coal rail. Lacking robust governance policies, including some required by its legislation, and poorly resourced, NAIF should reject the immense political pressure to fast-track the loan. The Australia Institute also lodged FOI requests with the NAIF. The FOI

With exports to key markets declining, Indonesia’s huge coal industry is pinning its hopes on expansion of domestic coal use. Current policy would triple numbers of coal-fired power stations and ignore Indonesia’s huge renewable energy potential.

The Australia Institute provided advice to EDO NSW and the Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association on the possible economic effects of closing Wallaby Scrub Road, in the Hunter Valley, NSW. Rio Tinto proposes to close the road in order to expand the Mt Thorley-Warkworth coal mine.

Report on what we do and don’t know about mines, closures and rehabilitation in New South Wales. Little data is available to the public on the clean-up from the mining boom. State government agencies often lack basic information on how many mines are in operation, with still less published on closures and abandonments.

The Australia Institute welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to Treasury’s Review of the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT). The review occurs at a time when Australia is set to become the world’s largest gas exporter, yet PRRT revenues are declining. Several major gas projects are unlikely to pay PRRT for decades, according to