The Minerals Council of Australia,which counts coal miners such as Glencore,Whitehaven and BHP among its membership,on Wednesday rejected the suggestion that capping coal prices would lower energy bills,and blamed the price of gas for setting higher electricity costs.
“Coal is not the problem here,and it is misleading to suggest otherwise,” Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable said.
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Constable said coal’s share of the east coast generation mix was shrinking,while renewables such as wind,solar and hydro continued to grow.
“As a result,renewable and gas generation set the price in Australia’s electricity market,” Constable said.
Coal and gas prices have been pushed to record levels this year as the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine deepens a global energy crisis and intensifies competition for supplies of the commodities.
However,expertshave said placing a cap on gas prices alone would have a negligible effect on power bills as less than 10 per cent of the east coast market is gas-fired electricity while about 60 per cent comes from coal.