This article was originally published in the Herald Sun on 5 December 2024.

Summer has only just begun, yet we are already hearing about the risk of “blackouts” when our electricity system can’t produce enough energy to meet demand.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Gas provides the available back-up to renewable energy when the sun goes down and there’s no wind to turn the turbines.

As old coal power stations become less reliable and are ultimately retired, the role of gas-powered generation is going to become even more important.

The federal government’s Future Gas Strategy is clear that Australia needs gas for decades to come. The ACCC and AEMO have sounded the alarm on the risk of gas shortfalls.

So as a nation, we need to get on with unlocking domestic gas.

With industry using around 90 per cent of total Australian gas consumption, any campaign to stop domestic gas development is effectively a campaign to close down key sectors of our economy which don’t currently have a viable alternative to gas.

Gas is essential for thousands of commercial and industrial users and is critical to our economy and to everyday life. They make the building products for our homes, fertilisers for our food. They ensure the safe operations of our hospitals and hospitality venues.

They are also a key part of a future made in Australia.

An example is our steel industry, which makes structural materials and roofing products that go into the construction of Australian homes.

Steel manufacturers can’t run exclusively on electricity, as it can’t provide the intense heat used in the steel-making process or provide the chemistry needed to turn iron into steel.

Like Australia’s households, these manufacturers are also looking for ways to lower carbon emissions, and by using natural gas instead of coal emissions from iron and steelmaking can be reduced.

It’s a similar story for brick manufacturing. Electricity can’t make the brick kilns hot enough.

What is the common theme here? Australia’s manufacturing sector needs natural gas.

Yes, natural gas is a fossil fuel, but it produces around half the carbon emissions of coal. No country in the world has successfully brought renewables into its energy system and retired coal and diesel, without gas.

Australia is blessed with abundant gas reserves – it’s crazy that we are at risk of gas shortages in some areas.