Seeley International Managing Director Jon Seeley says Daniel Andrews’ plan to ban the use of gas in new homes from 2024 is “government greenwashing”. “It’s claiming an environmental benefit which is absolutely not there,” Mr Seeley told Sky News host Peta Credlin.
The Victorian government has announced that all gas connections will be banned from January in all new homes, apartments, and government buildings as part of their plan to reach net zero emissions by 2045. Jon states: “Unfortunately it will not lower emission, it will do the opposite and the reason is because the vast majority of Victoria’s electricity is generated by burning brown coal (and it will be for many years to come), so we’ll actually have the opposite effect, which has been acknowledged over the weekend by the Grattan Institute who are quite an advocate for electrification”.
“It’s going to unavoidably drive cost up with the simple economics of supply and demand, so the government is forcing a reduction of supply, demand will be there, and it won’t be able to be met the costs. It will negatively impact households and businesses with cost and energy reliability”.
“The electricity Grid in Victoria is already struggling to cope with demand at the peak. Half of the energy to Victorian homes is gas so it’s completely impossible to turn off all gas supply, and stopping people from using gas on new homes will drive greater demand on the electricity grid and it will burn more brown coal”.
Jon pulled up the Minister of Environment’s claim that gas emissions are at 17% in the state. “It’s a very devious statistic the government are using, because residential gas in Victoria accounts for less than 2% of all emissions, and this policy is purely targeting residential use of gas so they’re focusing on absolutely the wrong thing, but they will cause enormous pain”.
Source: Sky News Australia