From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

If you want to understand how Australia got into its current mess, read the open letter quoted in this article.

Open Letter to Australia

OIL WARS THREATEN OUR SECURITY

Climate change deepen the danger

Australia’s dependence on fossil fuels is a critical economic and security vulnerability. Major confl icts in Ukraine and in the Middle East — including the Suez crisis, two Arab-Israeli wars, and the Iran-Iraq war — have all caused energy supply and economic shocks.

Today, Australia is particularly exposed. Our heavy reliance on imported oil, and gas prices now tied to global markets, mean higher costs for Australian households and businesses.

Any sustained closure of the Strait of Hormuz shipping route interrupts the global petrol and diesel supply, and the petrochemical feedstocks essential for fertiliser production, apparel manufacturing, copper and nickel mining, microchip production and much else. The consequences are rising food prices, higher transport costs and potentially severe economic disruption.

At the same time, climate change, driven by fossil fuel use and subsidies, is increasing instability and conflict.

Food shortages, water stress and extreme heat have already contributed to social breakdown across the Middle East and North Africa, including Syria and the Arab Spring. As global warming intensifies, competition for water, food and resources including oil will further increase the risks of insecurity and war. And the conflict themselves add to climate change with increased military and reconstruction emissions.

These risks are connected. Continuing fossil fuel dependence, let alone the government’s current support for expansion, intensifi es climate change, creating a growing threat to Australia’s economic and national security.

We call on the Australian Government to accelerate the transition to clean, domestic energy. Rapidly expanding renewable energy — including wind, solar, batteries, hydro and renewable fuels produced in Australia — and electrifying our transport system with home-grown energy will strengthen Australia’s security, reduce exposure to global energy shocks and help limit the escalating risks driven by climate change.

Protecting Australians by accelerating the renewable energy rollout is now a security priority.

Sincerely,

ADMIRAL CHRIS BARRIE AC
Former Chief, Australian Defence Force (Retd)

AIR VICE-MARSHAL JOHN BLACKBURN AO
Deputy Chief, Royal Australian Air Force (Retd)

COLONEL NEIL GREET
Colonel, Australian Army (Retd)

CHERYL DURRANT
Former Director of Preparedness & Mobilisation,
Australian Department of Defence

MAJOR MICHAEL THOMAS
Australian Army (Retd)

IAN DUNLOP
Former Chair of the Australian Coal Association

JANE HOLLAWAY
Former Systems Analyst, Australian Department of Defence

LIEUTENANT COLONEL DECHLAN ELLIS
Australian Army (Retd)

Authorised by the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group I aslcg.org

BRIGADIER MICHAEL BOND CSC & BAR
Australian Army (Retd)

PROF. MATT MCDONALD
School of Political Science & International Studies,
University of Queensland

COMMODORE DREW MCKINNIE
Royal Australian Navy (Retd)

JASON LUGH BROWN FSYL
Former Senior Executive Service Defence & Attorney General’s Department

CAPTAIN PADDY HODGMAN
Royal Australian Navy (Retd)

GROUP CAPTAIN ANNE BORZYCKI
Royal Australian Air Force (Retd)

DR PETER LAYTON
Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute

MICHAEL COPAGE
Director CoTerran, Former Head of ASPI’s
Climate and Security Policy Centre

DR ALBERT PALAZZO
Adjunct Professor UNSW Canberra & former
Director of War Studies in the Department of Defence

COMMODORE VINCE DI PIETRO AM, CSC
Royal Australian Navy (Retd)

ANASTASIA KAPETAS
National Security Asset StrategistSource: https://www.aslcg.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ASLCG_OpenLetter.pdf

Some of what is said in this letter I agree with. Australia is deeply vulnerable to geopolitical disruption to trade, because we are utterly dependent on imported energy.

The Iran Oil Crisis + Australia’s Failed Green Energy Policies are Collapsing our Farming and Fishing Industries

But the proposed solution, transitioning to renewables, is not working and will never be feasible.

Take electric long haul trucks. Not battery powered toys, like the kind of cheap Chinese EVs climate activists drive, I’m talking about real freight transport.

Every attempt to introduce electric trucks has ultimately failed, for the simple reason that batteries are not energy dense enough to provide acceptable range, and recharge times kill the economics of long distance haulage.

California abandons diesel truck ban and 3 other clean-air rules before Trump is sworn in

BY ALEJANDRO LAZO JANUARY 14, 2025

IN SUMMARY
Because Trump is unlikely to approve them, California has no choice but to abandon its groundbreaking rules for zero-emission trucks and cleaner loco

…

California has decided to abandon its groundbreaking regulations phasing out diesel trucks and requiring cleaner locomotives because the incoming Trump administration is unlikely to allow the state to implement them.

State officials have long considered the rules regulating diesel vehicles essential to cleaning up California’s severe air pollution and combating climate change. 

…

Trucking companies had already sued the state to stop the measure, saying electric and hydrogen big rigs are not practical for long-haul uses and that it would destroy the state’s economy.

“The California Trucking Association has consistently stated the Advanced Clean Fleets Rule was unachievable,” Eric Sauer, chief executive of the association, said in a statement. He said the industry would work with the state air board and EPA “to further reduce emissions in a technologically feasible and cost-effective manner. that preserves our State and the Nation’s critical supply chain.”

…Read more: https://calmatters.org/environment/2025/01/trump-california-withdraws-diesel-clean-air-rules/

The Californian administration could have fought President Trump’s rollback, if there was support from the trucking industry. But the trucking industry fought the new rule, because they couldn’t see a viable path to operating a haulage business with electric trucks.

In my opinion, claiming the rules were repealed because of Trump was just an excuse to cancel rules which had already proven to be unworkable.

Farming is another area electric has failed to deliver. There is a Netherlands company, EOX Tractors, which is pushing autonomous electric farm machinery to Aussie farmers. But their 30KW engine is attached to a 150KWh battery, which only provides 5 hours of operation in perfect conditions, likely less in real world conditions. Though the marketing material suggests an additional battery pack can be attached. Good enough for a hobby farm, or perhaps a small plot size market garden near a major city, and possibly useful in the kind of small, highly subsidised and heavily regulated farms the Netherlands currently operates, but its difficult to see how such machines could deliver value in Australian conditions.

The tractors used on large Australian farms top out at >600KW, and need to be used well over 12 hours per day during work intensive periods, such as emergency harvesting after an unexpected weather event threatens to destroy the crop value, and the entire field turns into a muddy bog. There would not be a lot of solar power to recharge the batteries, when the sky blackens and heavy rainfall threatens to drown the crops.

Aussie Miners are experimenting with electric, and this is one of the few areas where electric vehicles might work in some cases. Because of the high cost of transporting fuel to remote locations, and the high value of some ores, some mining companies would be able to afford as many lithium battery packs and solar panels as were required to keep their equipment running 24×7. But time will tell whether battery powered equipment prevails in the mining industry.

The solution Australia needs to implement is to copy President Trump’s domestic energy agenda, to secure Australian domestic fossil fuel supplies and manufacturing industry, to insulate us from geopolitical shocks. Even if there isn’t enough oil, which I doubt, converting coal, gas and heavy tars into gasoline and diesel is child’s play in modern refineries. China operates substantial synthetic coal to fuel plants, using syngas indirect conversion.

My point is the renewable transition isn’t working, and aside from a few specialised sectors, cannot be made to work with any foreseeable technology. But so long as influential Australian establishment leaders like the climate zealots who signed the open letter keep pushing impossible solutions like net zero, using their substantial political influence to paralyse efforts to correct our energy failures, Australia will continue to be stuck in energy limbo, and will continue to be vulnerable to supply shocks and external energy crisis.