Woodside’s extraordinary interjection into the national debate on capping soaring gas prices is an insult to Australians struggling with energy bills, says Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
Following the Federal Government’s announcement of domestic gas price caps to alleviate the energy crisis, Woodside’s CEO Meg O’Neill has launched an extraordinary tirade, claiming that the intervention will damage gas investments.
Jess Panegyres, Head of Clean Transitions at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said that Woodside’s response to price caps betrays how out of touch the company is with the serious financial problems gas prices are causing for many Australians.
“It’s insulting that Meg O’Neill, a CEO on a multi-million dollar salary, thinks she can cry poor about measures to curtail rampant gas industry price gouging while Australians face energy poverty as a result of soaring gas prices,” she said.
“Woodside is making record profits off the back of the Ukraine war while our power bills skyrocket. The enormous tantrum being thrown by the gas industry in response to the Federal Government’s sensible price caps demonstrate very clearly that they’re motivated by greed, not Australia’s national interests.
“Western Australia, a state Meg O’Neill should be deeply familiar with, already has a system of price caps and a domestic gas reservation policy – and it doesn’t seem to have killed the gas industry dead. The national gas industry should be able to survive proper regulation, scrutiny and a sensible pricing structure. If it can’t, it raises significant questions about whether this is a viable industry for Australia at all.
“To add injury to insult, Woodside’s enormous profits are coming at the expense of the climate. Gas is a fossil fuel that is driving dangerous climate change, and it’s already costing Australians. The Insurance Council of Australia has calculated that the damage from this year’s climate-driven flooding alone will cost the country $5.56 billion, and that’s only set to increase unless we urgently reduce emissions. There’s no place for Woodside’s profiteering and dangerous gas expansion plans if we want a safer climate future.”
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