IEEFA Australia: Expert to put gas industry and Northern Territory energy strategies under microscope this week

December 12, 2019 (IEEFA Darwin) – Bruce Robertson, the financial analyst who accuses Australia’s gas industry of lining its pockets through price gouging and tax loopholes, will address public meetings on the economics of gas and the Northern Territory’s gas policies in Darwin and Palmerston this week.

Robertson, an expert with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), will highlight the heavy cost and poor environmental prospects of giving more power to the gas industry in the Territory’s energy policies.

He will also discuss the state of renewable energy and electricity grids in the Northern Territory, and the territory’s capacity to transition from predominantly gas to solar energy.

“Australia’s gas industry is effectively an oligopoly, a cartel of producers who are limiting supply and charging way above international parity prices for gas,” says Robertson.

“The Northern Territory government lifted the moratorium on fracking last year, a move suggesting the gas industry has won over another state government.

“At public events this week, I’ll show that in other states, the gas industry hasn’t produced what it says it will produce.

“The Northern Territory government will get nothing from the gas industry. They won’t get royalties, they won’t get gas at reasonable prices, and they’ll end up with depleted water supplies with significant implications for the tourism industry.

“That’s what happened in Queensland, and it will happen in the Northern Territory.

“Going ahead with one industry that has already proven itself to be a price-fixer, and destroying parts of another does not make economic sense.”

Hear Bruce Robertson speak at:

Media Contact: Kate Finlayson ([email protected]) +61 418 254 237

Author Contact: Bruce Robertson ([email protected])