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Here’s the truth: energy transition is hard. Not everyone gets a pony
(The Guardian, 23 Apr 2024) Jobs will change, communities will be affected, but we have a shot at rising to the challenge of global heating.
The climate crisis has long been defined by its lies: From the original sin of science denial, to Tony Abbott’s confected carbon tax panic, to the latest yellowcake straw man. But the most damaging porky of all might be that the transition to renewable energy will be easy.
Government messaging has propagated this myth, vacillating between the torpid technocracy of targets, acronyms and megawatt hours and the sunny spin that promises “a cheaper, cleaner energy future!”.
Both gloss over the hard truth that fundamentally changing the way Australia produces, shares and uses energy is hugely disruptive, particularly in the regions where new infrastructure is earmarked for land and sea.
The Coalition knows that if these Renewable Energy Zones designed as a glittering prize to showcase the economic benefits of the transition become a political liability, they can consolidate their rural base and build into some of Labor’s regional holdouts.
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The Guardian, 23 Apr 2024: Here’s the truth: energy transition is hard. Not everyone gets a pony
