gas prices csg and greens

Comments from an SMH 20/10/2011 Article with Grant King on GAS prices, CSG and the Greens.

Origin Energy managing director Grant King says the rise in energy prices over the period ahead is only expected to have a small impact on consumers.

Mr King says a number of factors, such as higher network costs, higher prices for coal and gas, and the federal government's carbon pricing program, will push up energy prices.

However, they will be mainly at the wholesale level - Mr King says a $23 per tonne carbon price will result in a 50 per cent increase in wholesale electricity prices and a doubling of wholesale natural gas prices over the next three to five years.

Typical households were expected to have their energy bills rise by 10 per cent, or about $2.30 a week for electricity and about $1.40 a week for gas, respectively, in that time.

"One should bear in mind that over the five years or so in which these effects will occur, household incomes are expected to rise on average by four per cent per annum," Mr King told guests during a business lunch in Sydney on Thursday.

"On this basis we think it unlikely that the cost of household energy will become significantly more burdensome for consumers.

"We do expect that Australia will continue to enjoy competitive energy costs compared to our major trading partners."

Mr King said Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed the proportion of household expenditure devoted to energy had "hardly changed over the past 25 years", sitting at somewhere between two and three per cent.

Last month, Origin and a number of other coal seam gas (CSG) companies launched a public relations campaign to dispel alarmist claims about the sector.

The hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking", process used in the CSG industry to split rock seams and extract methane, was banned in Queensland in October last year, with many green groups and farmers demanding a moratorium on CSG activities.

Mr King said CSG was not as harmful as some had portrayed it to be, adding that every energy choice, from fossil fuels to wind farms to photovoltaic solar cells, came with an environmental impact.

"There is no silver bullet, there is no magic technology that is entirely benign," Mr King said.

"We puzzle over why it is that environmental groups are generally more vocally opposed to fossil fuel production whilst remaining silent on environmental issues associated with renewable energy."

Mr King said environment groups were highly inconsistent when advocating for certain forms of renewable energy.

"I'm not going to use the word hypocrisy, it's just a lot of inconsistency," he said.

Mr King said Origin had unsuccessfully tried on numerous occasions to meet with the Greens.

"Our organisation has sought meeting with the Greens and they have had no interest in meeting with us," Mr King said.