When it comes to bullies, they don’t come much bigger than ExxonMobil, who just took aim at the Victorian government for daring to think about supporting Victorian households with the ballooning cost of gas heating and hot water, including helping fund the use of electrical appliances as an alternative.
The inconvenient truth for ExxonMobil is that not only is their product making people and our planet sick, Victorians are quickly realising it’s also burning a hole in our wallets. To heat our homes and hot water, electricity is now cheaper than gas, and as coal is replaced in the grid with Victoria’s abundant solar and wind resources, it’s also cleaner.
Exxon Australia has warned the Victorian government about moves to reduce gas use.Credit:Bloomberg
ExxonMobil is the company that brought the world the Valdez oil spill. They were found by a royal commission to be responsible for the Longford gas explosion that killed two Victorians despite the company trying to blame its workers for the tragedy. They have a track record of putting their bottom line ahead of the interests of ordinary people.
In a speech to the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook conference this week, Exxon Australia commercial director David Berman appeared to launch a preemptive attack on the Andrews government’s Gas Substitution Roadmap, a vitally important policy for industry and consumers, which is still in its public consultation stage. He suggested that if the Andrews government helps Victoria shift away from gas, ExxonMobil would question further investments in the state.
“The [Roadmap] is the single largest threat to near-term gas supply for the 80 per cent of Victorian households that rely on gas for heating, hot water and cooking,” he said.
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Let’s just step out this logic. By supporting households and businesses to replace old gas appliances with efficient new electric ones, the Roadmap would result in Victoria using less gas. In retaliation, ExxonMobil might rethink its plans to increase production from existing gas fields in the Gippsland Basin. This would threaten a short-term gas supply crunch, which ExxonMobil appears to be using as leverage to influence government policy.
This is appalling corporate behaviour and ExxonMobil should be publicly called out for it.
The reality is that gas prices have been on the rise for years, and with the current sanctions on Russian gas and reduced supply from Bass Strait, they’re only going up. For electricity, it’s the opposite. The latest price trend report from the Australian Energy Market Commission found an influx of renewables and battery storage is expected to reduce wholesale electricity prices by around 39 per cent in Victoria by 2024.
Don’t believe Exxon-Mobile – cutting out gas will save you money
Source: Philippines Alive
