{"id":407078,"date":"2025-10-08T08:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T06:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=407078"},"modified":"2025-10-08T08:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T06:54:12","slug":"energy-prices-now-the-biggest-single-concern-of-business-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=407078","title":{"rendered":"Energy prices now the biggest single concern of business in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joanne Nova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was always going to happen, as long as the Minister for Weather was determined to control Pacific Decadal Oscillations with windmills. Everyone would be happy-happy until the bill arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a survey of 500 Australian companies, the rapid rise of energy costs is now the single biggest concern. Any given business was three times as likely to worry about the price of energy rather than about Trump\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet in the election campaign, mere months ago, media coverage of U.S. tariffs was wall-to-wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, the billion-dollar ABC spends 100 times as long lecturing us on foreign wars as it does discussing the things Australians need \u2014 like lights, heat, air conditioning, and jobs. The national conversation about electricity grids is nothing more than renewable advertising slogans and fairy wish-spells. Everyone can subsidize everyone else to buy solar panels and batteries, and we\u2019ll all have free electricity, yeah?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a productivity crisis in Australia? Shh!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A survey of more than 500 Australian companies has found energy costs have become the top business challenge<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Cranston, The Australian<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses now rank the cost of energy as the chief concern for their future, rating it almost three times more worrying than U.S. \u00adtariff and trade disruptions, \u00adaccording to new analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several corporate leaders, including those in the manufacturing sector<\/a>, say the cost of energy is rising so fast that it\u2019s now risking their competitiveness with importers\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BHP\u2019s Mr. Henry told a shareholder forum last month: \u201cThe reality is \u2026 Australia has electricity costs that are two to three times higher than countries that we are competing with and 50 to 100 per cent higher than the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chief executive of data-centre owner NEXTDC, Craig Scroggie, said higher energy costs were crimping Australia\u2019s competitiveness. \u201cNo one is happy with higher energy costs, especially when the government says they are going to be low.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve reached the point where we are thousands of miles away from most factories and smelters, but we still can\u2019t make anything cheaper for ourselves than they can. Energy costs are rising so fast in Australia, it\u2019s less expensive to dig up rocks, put them on ships, and send them 6,000 kilometers to China to smelt the steel with our own coal, and then ship the widgets right back to us. And if it\u2019s made with slave labor and plenty of pollution, that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared at Real Clear Energy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Joanne Nova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A prize-winning science graduate in molecular biology. She has given keynotes about the medical revolution, gene technology and aging at conferences. She hosted a children\u2019s TV series on Channel Nine, and has done over 200 radio interviews, many on the Australian ABC. She was formerly an associate lecturer in Science Communication at the ANU. She\u2019s author of The Skeptics Handbook which has been translated into 15 languages. Each day 5,000 people read joannenova.com.au<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was always going to happen, as long as the Minister for Weather was determined to control Pacific Decadal Oscillations with windmills. Everyone would be happy-happy until the bill arrived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":407081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"Discover how soaring energy costs are now the top concern for Australian businesses, overshadowing even international trade issues.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"The Energy Crisis in Australia: Business Woes and Solutions","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818216,691824503,691827981,691819180],"class_list":{"0":"post-407078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-electricity-costs","10":"tag-electricity-grids","11":"tag-energy-costs","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPjLtEfx7CoMsWvA4cqwRJWFgfPnlGhgk3fMYDZIeZ_9F_-gXg1BE7sb4tR6VLOgnZD5ZIKek_WuG5A2LMDZvjhki3f-pJPk_jl__HsnIseuH5sASyHMXQZFot3mrhH-1.jpeg?fit=1410%2C785&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1HTM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":380236,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=380236","url_meta":{"origin":407078,"position":0},"title":"Renewable Push Sends Aussie Electricity Prices Skyrocketing","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/05\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen blames householders for not shopping around for the cheapest deal.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":248168,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=248168","url_meta":{"origin":407078,"position":1},"title":"Mystery: Australians invest billions in free wind and solar, but prices rise another 20-30%","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"For 40 years electricity prices went down, but something changed in the last ten years. 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