This highly annoying energy crisis was met with a dramatic change in government policy. The NSW Electricity Commission was created in May 1950; new coal-fired power stations and transmission grids were built across the state, and later supplemented by new hydroelectricity from the Snowy Mountains. Now that was decisive government action on energy policy.

By the late 1960s, the rapidly expanding Australian economy and population required additional power. On Australian government territory land near Jervis Bay, the initial earthworks for a nuclear power station were constructed. This was an initiative of the Coalition Gorton government in September, 1969, but deferred by the McMahon government two years later, because of increased cost. It was never built.

This was 10 years before environmental politics took hold in Australia, and possibly the last chance for us to produce base-load power without greenhouse gas emissions. But the window of opportunity was closed. The nuclear power policy was revived by prime ministers John Howard in 2007 and Tony Abbott in 2015, but it was too late. In this century, it has been anathema to the powerful green lobby.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

If Australia had started nuclear power generation, as initially planned in the early 1970s, our dependence on coal-fired power this century would not have been as great, and our greenhouse gas challenge would not now be so overwhelming.

We have wasted the past 10 years vacillating on policy and unable to find a way forward to a clean energy future on which the Australian Parliament can agree. The latest plan to get us out of this quagmire has been National Energy Minister Angus Taylor's Technology Investment Roadmap.

At its core, it proposes a shift from coal to gas for base-load power over time. Gas does indeed produce CO2 emissions but at a 50 to 60 per cent lower level than coal. Under this plan, as the old coal-fired stations reach the end of their life, gas would increasingly take over the base-load task of creating a stable power supply, supported by a growing input of renewables, including wind, sun and hydro backed up by battery storage.

This would be a transitional arrangement possibly for the next few decades, until new technologies such as hydrogen (when created by electrolysis powered by renewables), can take up base-load power production with zero greenhouse gas emissions.

But there is a strong view in the green lobby that Australia should move straight to renewables. We have often debated in my own family if this is even possible, given that in Australia, the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow. South Australia found this to its cost when the state placed itself ahead of the renewables curve with an over-reliance on these power technologies. In September, 2016, we all recall, there was a devastating storm, and the whole state was blacked out.

Industry in South Australia was paralysed, and homes were completely without power because its back-up reliance on Victorian coal-fired power station connectors failed. Also, the state's plan for back-up battery storage was, and still is, in its infancy.

US entrepreneur Elon Musk built a demonstration battery for the state, but this only provides enough power for 30,000 homes for eight hours. Batteries have enormous promise, but still need technology breakthroughs before they are ready to seriously support the unstable renewable power supply, state-wide.

IN OTHER NEWS:

But what is clear is that as the inevitable move away from coal speeds up in Australia, it is not all bad news for the Hunter. In the Newcastle Herald article, "Hunter lights up with gas potential," 22/5/20, it was reported that GasDock proponent EPIK's, plans to spend $589 million to create a facility on Kooragang Island to receive by sea, natural gas from other ports in Australia.

Also, AGL proposes to build a gas-fired power station and storage in the Lower Hunter. Overall, there are currently billions of dollars in the pipeline for proposed local gas infrastructure projects. These would dovetail perfectly with the Technology Investment Roadmap's elevation of gas as the interim base-load power fuel to shore up renewable power.

If all of this comes to pass, the Hunter will continue its central place as the powerhouse of the NSW economy. Perhaps even the blackouts of my youth may be avoided in the future, if Australia can finally come up with an agreed roadmap for energy policy.

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