Comment on Does Albanese's idea for more Australian oil supplies stack up?
MisterFrog@aussie.zone 3 days ago
If only we hadn’t bloody allowed the ones we already had to be closed… They should have been forcibly nationalised at a fair (low) price if they wanted to close up shop.
Especially the refinery owned by Viva Energy in Geelong should have been nationalised, not had their profits guaranteed…
I say all this as someone who doesn’t drive, and I thinks we should get off oil ASAP. We can’t just flip the switch and have everything grind to a halt.
But building a NEW refinery? Are you serious?
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Even in an ideal world where every Australian commuter vehicle is an EV, we would still need our own ability to process and refine oil into aviation fuel, diesel for farming/trucking, and probably a few other vital resources that I’m forgetting.
But I broadly agree with you, if we are to build another - it needs to be a national asset and not a private one; so that works to ensure our energy sovereignty as much as possible, and not shareholder profits.
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 2 days ago
yep but if everyone in Australia had an EV our current 3 months worth of fuel supplies would be like 12 months+
At what point is keeping unprofitable fuel processing for a minority of users a waste of tax payer money?
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
I don’t think every Government enterprise needs to be “profitable”; an investment in national security, energy independence and price stability can be subsidised by tax-payers to provide us the ability to absorb global price shocks.
The facility can be run on a skeleton crew normally, providing a reliable base-load volume while having the ability to ramp up refining volumes as circumstances require.
It’s the same way I feel about our desalination plant in Victoria. Having the plant available on stand-by for the upcoming super el-niño event leaves us in a much better position than not.
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 2 days ago
But then what’s the point of the fuel supplies and secondly why aren’t the businesses themselves keeping their own stock piles?
Why should I, EV driver, full kitted out house with Solar+Battery+Heat Pump+EV have to subsidise people and companies who refuse to electrify and instead rely on recycled dinosaur bones?