If we had abundant solar and wind powered electricity (by keeping the RET), how many industries (and homes) could do without gas?
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that:
“… besides the upward pressure on (gas) prices arising from the shift towards export parity pricing (Gladstone LNG), the public is being hoodwinked by industry on access charges.
The reason the gas lobby wants nobody to notice the drop in demand is that – just as occurred with the gold-plating of the electricity market and the consequent doubling in electricity bills – there is a gold-plating racket afoot in the gas market too. The industry is paid according to its inflated forecasts. So there is no interest in letting on that demand is really in decline.
The magic word in all this is DORC (Depreciated Optimised Replacement Cost). David Johnstone, professor of finance at the University of Sydney, says DORC is deployed by those who own the gas distribution assets to “game the regulator” and fetch an inflated return on their assets.”