Energy News: Climate Wars May Bring Down Yet Another Australian Prime Minister

Barnaby Joyce and senior Nationals MPs have warned that the Coalition agreement could be severed over energy policy, setting up a showdown with city-based Liberal MPs fearing a voter backlash over coal in affluent blue-ribbon seats in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

After Scott Morrison yesterday rejected a push to fund new coal-fired power plants in central Queensland, Mr. Joyce, the Prime Minister’s hand-picked drought envoy, told The Australian the termination of the Coalition was an option on the table. —The Australian, 12 March 2019

Tensions between Ireland’s “big two” parties over continuing Government co-operation have again surfaced – this time on the key issue of climate change and major hikes in the carbon tax. Fine Gael TDs and senators on a special all-party committee considering actions against climate change, whose report has been repeatedly delayed, say they suspect Fianna Fáil is trying to delay necessary tough decisions. —The Independent, 11 March 2019

Sinn Féin will reject a higher carbon tax on the grounds that it would hit low and middle-income households hardest. Mary Lou McDonald had previously expressed support for an increase and urged other parties to resist “going off on their high horse” over the issue. The party leader said in January that her party would not support any tax increase that would disadvantage the poorest. —The Times, 12 March 2019

Fracking Britain’s shale gas reserves could cut the country’s imports of gas to zero by the early 2030s, an industry group said on Monday. Britain currently imports more than half of its gas via pipelines from continental Europe and Norway and through shipments of liquefied natural gas from countries such as Russia, the United States, and Qatar. —Reuters, 11 March 2019

In the ongoing showdown between Russia and the West, Russia has a trump card: natural gas exports. Despite chilly relations, in 2018, gas shipments from Russia to Europe and Turkey hit an all-time high of 201.8 billion cubic meters (bcm). And even as the EU sticks to its guns on Russia sanctions, many of its members happily press ahead with their pet energy projects. Germany, for example, continues to back the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will bring natural gas from Russia to the north German coast. —Dimitar Bechev, Foreign Policy, 12 March 2019

The Trump administration is readying a tough stance against a Russian gas pipeline with sanctions, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move is driving tensions between the U.S., Germany, and other parts of the EU. The reason is a combination of geopolitics and competition in selling natural gas. —Fortune, 11 March 2019