NSW climate and energy minister Penny Sharpe says Australia has managed to weather the latest global fossil fuel supply crisis “relatively well”, but says it remains an “existential issue” that has forced a rethink about EVs, fertiliser and diesel supplies and energy security as a whole.
“I think we’re okay, until we’re not,” Sharpe said at the Energy Efficiency Council national conference in Sydney on Thursday.
“This is an existential issue that we have very little control over. If the Strait of Hormuz does not open properly in some time, there is a limit to the amount of that we can do before we actually have to get into those really serious conversations.
“And there’s been a huge amount of discussion at federal and state and industry, and a whole range of people around, would we have to ration, we don’t want to have to, but it’s not in our ultimately it’s not in our hands.”
Sharpe says the issue has clearly inspired many consumers to turn to EVs, and for the agriculture sector to think carefully about the supply and cost of diesel and fertiliser. Some at the conference suggested that electrification could be thought of as a smarter too than interest rates to tackle inflation.
