Letter from Australia: Canberra’s gas vision in crisis

Opposition politicians and media sniff blood over an economic revival strategy driven by natural gas, rather than renewables

Australia’s National Covid-19 Commission (NCC)—set up in March to advise the government on how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the economy—is facing increasing scrutiny over its staunch support for gas. The NCC’s advice to Prime Minister Scott Morrison is to underwrite investment in new gas pipelines. But, appearing before a mid-August Senate committee, NCC chairman Neville Power was quizzed on what role renewables could play and could offer only that the panel had not “looked at energy in that context”. Under-Powered He also suggested that it is not the commission’s role to “recommend specific projects”—seemingly ignoring the contradiction that it had suggested government