Plea to free gas from ACCC


GAS transmission needs to be unshackled from the competition watchdog's stranglehold if natural gas is expected to play a bigger role in a carbon-constrained economy, the pipeline industry peak group said yesterday.
"We don't need the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) to treat us like a rogue company," Cheryl Cartwright, chief executive of the Australian Pipeline Industry Association told BusinessDaily .
"If they want the transmission industry to get more gas to power generators and more gas to consumers, the regulator has to stop making it so difficult," she said.
APIA said the sector needs to lay down hundreds of thousands of kilometres of new pipes to boost output, but a web of state and national regulations was scaring away the required billions of dollars of private investment.
Yesterday, the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Ian Macfarlane, said between $35 billion and $40 billion of investment was needed by the energy industry to meet growing electricity demands and a transition to emissions trading.
"Electricity produced by natural gas-fired generation in Australia . . . is expected to almost triple to 92 terawatt hours by 2030," he told an APIA event yesterday.
The minister said that in a carbon-priced future, natural gas was well-placed to remain competitive, under a more "light-handed" regulatory environment.
Later, speaking on the prospects for renewable energy under an emissions trading system he told BusinessDaily he did not believe there was a role for national or state-based mandatory renewable energy targets.
The Prime Minister's Task Group on Emissions Trading last week recommended the axing of state-based schemes that require power companies to source a percentage of electricity from renewables, such as wind or biomass operations.
Mr Macfarlane told the APIA audience there was an expectation that a quarter of the nation's power generation needs would be met by gas in 2030, up from 14 per cent in 2005.
To reach this target required investment in peak capacity and government policy initiatives, he said.
"What we aim to do with the gas industry is ensure that light handed regulation be put in place so industry is able to invest with confidence."