The $16 billion a year in subsidies for wind and solar, plus taxpayer billions devoted to to directly advancing the green cause, is unlike other wasteful government spending. It is spending aimed at poisoning the once highly competitive and low-cost electricity-supply industry. Think of it this way: governments are forcing the nation to manufacture bombs to drop on the people financing them

Intelligence, competence, managerial aplomb -- they are the traditional qualities expected in senior public servants and agency chiefs. But these days there's the additional requirement that those who aspire to fly high demonstrate their faith in the creed of catastrophic climate change. Having never before touched on global warming, the new RBA chief has now ticked that box

The Climate-Related Financial Disclosure consultation paper concedes the financial risks associated with the transition to net zero, but nevertheless prods companies to slash their carbon emissions. Quite apart from the fact that pleasuring Gaia isn't and shouldn't be one of Treasury's responsibilities, the green preoccupation is farcical as Australia's top greenhouse emitters are already obliged to report by the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme

Rather than rent-seeking, the entrepreneurs of yesteryear profited by identifying needs and satisfying expectations. That's not the way it works with today's players in the energy market, who seek and exploit opportunities created by subsidies, regulation and green fantasies. Twiggy Forrest, who recently paid $4.1b to acquire CWP Renewables, could deliver a fine tutorial on this new way of doing business

This year, July electricity prices are averaging $350 per megawatt hour, a far cry from $50 back in 2015. With subsidies for renewables leading to the closure of crucial power stations, they crept up to $85 in 2019, which still seems cheap in comparison with the Himalayan ascent toward $400 that has occurred since 2021. This is no way to run a country

In an indication that the actual running of a business requires more applied intelligence than making broad and illogical generalisations about the sector's future, the Business Council actually claims Australia can flourish by making haste along the road to net zero. Simply put, there is madness afoot in the land

Before surrendering to the world's Greta Thunbergs and signing up for the fabled net-zero pathway to carbon-free bliss, a responsible government would want to weigh real world costs against the wealth of cliches about wind and sun 'being free'. Do that, Mr Morrison, and you'll find $6.9 billion per year earmarked for the rent-seeking industry

NSW Liberals, many reliant on funding from renewable energy interests, are introducing additional subsidies for wind and solar. Victoria's Liberals, similarly influenced by rent-seekers' largesse, seek to go even further into the wild green yonder than Labor. History doesn't speak kindly of parties so bereft of principle they borrow those of their opponents

Daniel Westerman, the latest and newly installed renewables pitchman to head the Australian Energy Market Operator, has said, with a straight face no less, that we'll soon be blessed by 'an energy system capable of handling 100 per cent renewable energy, at any moment of the day, by 2025.' Where do they find such people?