Fossil fuel industry may have lost power, but it’s still got its foot on the brakes

The fossil fuel industry may no longer be in government in Australia, but it is still keen to try and make its presence felt.

Perhaps because it feels it’s losing its grip over the transition to renewables in the electricity grid – ministers have put environment, of all things, into the national electricity objective and taken back control of the process to re-write the market rules – it has decided to throw out the anchors in the transition to electric transport.

It’s been pretty effective, so far.

Australia stands unique in the western world. It has no fuel emissions standards, it has the lowest uptake of electric vehicles, and boasts a fleet of incredibly dirty and inefficient cars. Australian drivers pay for the privilege at the bowser, and with their health.

You can thank the fossil fuel industry’s fellow travellers for that, the federal Coalition government, along with the Murdoch and other media, who have left lasting “memes” about “ruining the weekend” and a sad legacy of fear mongering and angry misinformation.

But things are changing. The election of a new Labor government, the presence of a strong, vibrant and intelligent cross bench, the growth of the Greens, and the support and urging of the country’s richest people – not to mention demand from consumers – is starting to rapidly change the conversation.

On Friday, at the National EV Summit in Canberra, backed by activist billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, the mood was positive, a mixture of relief and hope after a decade of inaction.

The centrepiece, and indeed the purpose of the summit, was the announcement by climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen of a discussion paper on a long awaited and much delayed fuel emissions standard, in effect putting environment into road transport, a week after it had been decided to put it into the grid.

The room was full of industry leaders (Tesla, Polestar, VW), state and territory ministers, independent and Green MPs and Senators, the heads of charging networks, motoring clubs, advocacy and consumer groups keen to make it happen.

But it didn’t take long to realise the scale of the challenge ahead – and particularly the need for more education, and to combat myths fuelled by the incumbent car and petrol lobbies, and amplified by the Coalition’s “it won’t tow your boat”, “they’ll steal your ute” and “tax your houses” campaign.

Like the electricity debate that preceded it, it’s all about delay. The liquid fossil fuel and global car markets are trillion dollar industries. Any delay in the transition to EVs, even by days, or weeks, is worth billions of dollars. They can afford to invest in disruptive social media campaigns and credulous media.

Within minutes of Bowen’s speech, centred on how to ensure Australia doesn’t become an even bigger dumping ground for dirty, costly, inefficient and unhealthy vehicles, the media had fallen into type, echoing the dark days of the hysterical response to the Gillard government’s clean energy package.

Here’s how it started:

JOURNALIST: Is this a carbon tax?

CHRIS BOWEN: No.

JOURNALIST: And why didn’t you take it to the election?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we made clear we’d develop an electric vehicle strategy in office and that’s exactly what we’re doing. And that’s sort of cheap… You know, I’ve seen, I’ve seen a Senator from Queensland out today saying this will end the Utes. I mean, Australians are over that sort of cheap, dishonest, pathetic sort of politics. We’re consulting, we’re getting on with the job.

JOURNALIST: Can you just explain why it’s not a carbon tax?

CHRIS BOWEN: Because it isn’t.

The Coalition quickly responded by saying it would add more than $5,000 to the cost of a ute (it won’t, and any extra costs will be offset by fuel savings). “They’re going to tell you what kind of vehicle you are going to buy,” complained former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce.

Former Resources minister Keith Pitt joined in, telling Sky News Australia. “So he’s saying to every Australian you’ll have to pay more for vehicles, in fact, as a government, we’re going to tell you what type of vehicle you have to buy.

Again, not true at all. Bowen has been at pains to point out that this is about choice, because right now those who want EVs can’t get them because most car makers won’t bring them to Australia.

Pitt also worried about the future of Australia’s last remaining petrol refiners, the same companies that – despite receiving pledges of up to $2.2 billion from the Coalition government, and the halving of excise duties, increased their margins by a factor of five over the June quarter. Always the consumer at heart.

The Australian Automobile Association, which says it represents the interests of eight million consumers, says it reckons that electric cars will only be “part of the solution”.

And then it went on to play a familiar theme, advancing the “technology agnostic” approach that promotes hybrids and “efficient” fossil fuel cars – an argument pushed by the Coalition for the electricity grid that makes no sense if the goal is zero emissions.

There are just a few problems with this approach: Most Australians say they want to buy an EV, and are keen to make their next purchase electric. Tradies will love electric utes. Most car makers, and many countries, will stop making and selling fossil fuel cars in little more than a decade.

This has not sunk in. The animosity towards EVs is often palpable. NRMA CEO Rohan Lund recently spoke of the massive pushback by some of its members when it first came out in support of the EV transition and binding fuel emissions standards.

“Historically, motoring clubs around the world have been quite terrified of the electric transition,” Lund told The Driven podcast.

“And that’s because they’ve relied on the fact mechanical repair is a key part of their businesses and electric cars don’t have mechanical parts. But I think that’s changed in recent years.

“I think as auto clubs have become more mature and understanding that they’re really there just to serve their members, they realise there’s an inevitability that their members will be driving electric cars.”

Clearly, the AAA is yet to get that message, which is often typical of industry bodies and lobby groups that traditionally favour the incumbents, because they are not looking at the future, and cannot imagine it.

The FCAI, which represents the car makers, declared itself – in full Yes, Minister style – supportive of Labor’s “courageous” decision to pursue compulsory standards. The FCAI wants one too, but under the influence of the big Japanese car companies, who don’t want to change quickly, it wants a pointlessly weak one.

The transition to EVs is on a downhill run, and the fossil fuel industry may well be trying to put its foot on the brakes. But like the vehicles themselves, the more you try to slow it down, the faster you re-charge the batteries. In the EV world it’s called “re-gen”. And some of the big car and petrol lobby groups could do with some.