Media

Tim Buckley says that while the current funding structure of Sun Cable is dead, it doesn’t mean the whole vision’s dead – it can be resurrected with a new corporate structure and, potentially, governments taking a larger financial stake. Read more

Tim Buckley in an extended interview on Sun Cable, noting that this challenging project proposal – a world first – needs sufficient government endorsement, and while it is currently in administration this is not equivalent to liquidation. Read more

Tim Buckley notes that in a project at the scale and complexity of Sun Cable, strategic, geopolitical, financial hiccups are inevitable and the current financial situation does not mean the vision is dead. Read more

Tim Buckley comments in this feature on the global shutting off of the pipeline of new coal power stations – a key phase in the international campaign to end coal and hasten the energy transition. Read more

Exxon Mobil is trying to sue its way out of a windfall war profits tax (33% levy on profits in excess of average profits over last 4 years) to tackle soaring energy prices claiming it will deter investment. Tim Buckley undoes the spin, pointing out Exxon will make $60bn profit this year and would be paying only $2bn of this under the windfall tax, and similar taxes (eg in WA and Norway) have not deterred investment. Read more

As Vanguard leaves the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative in the context of the chilling effect on investment of the US Republicans’ anti-ESG movement, Tim Buckley notes that Vanguard was such a climate laggard its exit could be a mutually agreed decision. Meanwhile Blackrock leads in this space and the US Climate Bill triggers a huge influx of capital into clean energy. Read more

As Tim Buckley writes, the accelerating momentum of 2022 now leaves Australia well capitalised to embrace the huge opportunities of decarbonisation – critically important given the fossil fuel hyperinflation and bill shock that has defined this year. Read more

Tim Buckley comments in this piece on the announcement by the federal government of 8 new utility scale batteries across Eastern Australia which will add 2GW of capacity, with a $176 million investment by ARENA attracting $2.7 billion in private capital. Read more

Tim Buckley interviewed on the Albanese government’s energy price relief plan on new media site RedWires. Read more

Tim Buckley on the response by Woodside, Shell and Santos to the federal gas price caps and mandatory code of conduct: “In the last few days the gas lobby has shown that it is determined to ensure that nothing will get in its way as it plunders our sovereign public assets to line its own pockets.” Read more

As Woodside and Shell pause negotiations to supply east coast gas in 2023 and 2024, kicking and screaming against the federal government’s necessary and reasonable energy price relief bill, Tim Buckley notes “That is a supply strike – overtly withdrawing capacity from the market. And Woodside doing it, knowing that Shell’s doing it, is collusion”. Read more

As political and international editor Peter Hartcher notes in his weekly SMH column, the Albanese government has called the gas giants’ bluff, quoting Tim Buckley’s comment that the 50% drop in forward wholesale power prices in NSW and QLD is a staggering endorsement of the government’s efforts. Read more