Live Free And Safe Guard

Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for some unsolicited advice to the next Victorian Energy Minister! This week our Bonus episode includes Frankie, Luke and Tennant providing some free (unsolicited) advice to whomsoever occupies the hotseat as Victorian Minister for Climate Change and Energy following this year’s state election. Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon to hear which hills your intrepid hosts think are are worth dying on. — This week your intrepid hosts have their eyes on Canberra for the entree and main course, and begin with a substantial speech from Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen at the National Press Club. Lots to digest in here, but the big ticket was the minister’s announcement to expand the Small Scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) to include deemed incentives for 5 years’ generation until 2030 of solar PV systems up to 1 MW, up from 100 kW. This idea has been doing the rounds for years and we reckon, it’s an idea whose time has well and truly come! Also packed into the speech was some more meat-on-bones for data centre energy requirements in the forthcoming National Standards - but lots more to come on that front! Our main course Summerupperers, this is the kind of episode your intrepid hosts were born for! This week we chow down on some classic LMSU content. That’s right, we speak of the government’s just-released 2026-27 Safeguard Mechanism Review consultation paper. Adding to our collection of Safeguard-related episodes, we go long on this one! Much anticipated and promised since 2023, this review is looking at how effective the current settings are in delivering the government’s 2030 emissions target, and whether adjustments are needed, as well as what the post-2030 settings should be. In the mix: decline rates! Financial support! To ACCU or not to ACCU! Thresholds! Cost of containment! And dare we say it, a little border carbon adjustment, just adjusting carbon at the border? Let’s make BoCA a thing, people! One more things Tennant’s One More Thing is: Research showing US Permian Basin methane leakage was nearly halved from 2019 to 2023. Effort, and regulation, make a difference!  Frankie’s One More Thing is: a PSA for some soon-to-be-published research from her day job at Investor Group on Climate Change on proposed reforms to the Safeguard Mechanism! The report will be launched in Canberra early next week, so keep your eyes peeled here. Luke’s One More Thing is: a rant about some seriously shortsighted and retrograde comments made by the Federal Opposition, committing to replace the National Construction Code with a basic housing standard based on the 1988 building code, before things like energy efficiency provisions were added. Where to start on this particular head scratcher? Hard to imagine a parliamentarian arguing for higher energy bills for vulnerable households, but these are topsy turvy times we live in.  And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to letmesumup.net to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!