King emphasised that she wanted to “decarbonise” the economy by shifting to renewables but had to deal with household and industry demand “and accept some of the realities of our current energy mix”.
She said demand for gas would fall over time and she wanted Australia to reach net zero emissions by 2050 with Labor policies to shift to renewables and invest in the electricity grid,but she said gas was part of the transition because it would replace dirtier emissions from coal-fired power.
“I understand people’s concerns about there being a lack of determination around meeting net zero emissions and a lack of an energy plan and that has been because of the climate wars in this country in the last 10 or 15 years,” she said.
“I have a lot of sympathy for it and I’m as angry as anyone about the inaction that has allowed the current crisis to be upon us.
“But everyone needs to understand,especially I think in some of the southern states,that right now when you flick on your light switch or have your dishwasher running or turn on your telly,for the most part,that moves a turbine in a coal-fired generator ... you’re using more coal,which is high in emissions.
“While the government is now bringing in an energy plan which will get working on renewables,and that’s our very determined ambition,gas is the transition fuel that is able to bring down emissions in the short term.
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“So it’s not a perfect answer. We’d all love to switch straight from coal to renewables. But it’s simply not possible,” she said.
“So I guess for the good people of NSW,they need to consider what they really want. And I imagine they still want to be able to turn on their television and keep their fridge running.
“What is the current means to be able to do it and be on a downward trajectory with emissions? Well,it’s via gas on the way to a proper,solid,reliable transmission system that allows renewables and the storage of renewables to operate into the long term.
“We’ve got a long way to go,actually,because of the lack of investment over the last 10 or 15 years and you can’t switch on investment like we switch on lights.
“And for those people that will get angry at me for what I’ve said,I just want to let them know that I want to clean and decarbonised world as well. And that’s what we’re working towards. It might not be on the same timeline as others. But we are all going through the same goal.”
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Santos has promised in the past that all the gas from Narrabri would serve the domestic market if the project gained approval,making this part of itsformal submission to the Independent Planning Commission.
“Santos has committed to providing all this gas to the domestic market and agreed to accept a condition to this effect on any petroleum production lease granted for the project under the Petroleum (Onshore) Act 1991,” the company wrote.
Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher confirmed the pledge in an interview on Sky News on June 8.
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