WA’s budding zero-emissions iron industry will consume vast amounts of water if Fortescue drawing upon an extra 60 Optus Stadiums’ worth of groundwater a year is anything to go by

Regular readers of this column with a critical interest in the renewables transition – differentiated from those who are blinkered true believers – will know that the intermittent nature of wind and solar energy is the Achilles heel of the Albanese Government’s strategy.

Rio Tinto has agreed to keep open its troubled Tomago aluminium smelter in return for a Commonwealth-led deal that will provide it with billions of dollars in subsidised power from the Snowy Hydro project and other renewables sources, all firmed by gas.

‘If you want to compete, and your economy ends up at risk, you’ve got to make difficult choices,’ said Brandon Craig who questioned whether Australia’s IR, tax and climate targets were at odds with its natural resource ambitions.

BP and Exxon are some of the big companies that have halted plans for low-carbon plants in recent months

A secret confidentiality deed has blocked public access to documents about Queensland’s failed $12bn pumped hydro project that allegedly contaminated farmers’ water supply.