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Let Me Sum Up

Tennant Reed, Luke Menzel, Frankie Muskovic
  • 5.0 (1)
  • POLITICS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Your regular deep dive into recent reports on climate and energy with Frankie Muskovic, Luke Menzel and Tennant Reed. Because there is too much.

  1. There Is Too Much: Safeguard Mechanism Outcomes 2024-25

    6D AGO ·  BONUS • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    There Is Too Much: Safeguard Mechanism Outcomes 2024-25

    The second year of Safeguard Mechanism data is out, and your intrepid hosts stand ready to sum it all up, and work through what it all means for the upcoming review! Check out the data here: https://cer.gov.au/markets/reports-and-data/safeguard-data

    31 min

  2. APR 23

    Trust No One (Particularly Businesses Prioritising Quarterly Profits Over Climate Action)

    Grab your limited edition ‘Energy Sovereignty Now!’ t-shirts! There is now an insufficiency of energy sufficiency AND sovereignty tees in the world, but don’t worry, the LMSU merch store has got you covered! Promises made, promises kept folks - grab your limited edition t-shirt right here. Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon so you too can SafeGuarder! This week our Bonus episode unpacks the second year of data from the reformed Safeguard Mechanism with a side serve of national accounts figures. Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon to check it out. — Your intrepid hosts reconvene Global Energy Crisis Corner because, There Is Too Much. Since our last episode we’ve seen the PM’s performative tour de force to short up energy contracts in the region, the launch of a mass media campaign gently suggesting we Keep Calm and Take Public Transport Where You Can, one of two Australian fuel refineries ON FIRE, the Great Gas Tax Debate, the blink-and-you-miss-it-open-and-close-of-the-Strait-of-Hormuz, aaand some alarming reporting revealing the inner workings of the Trump administration’s decision to start a war with Iran. Or in other words, just a day ending in Y for 2026! Our main course This week, we read a paper from two political science researchers, Jared J Finnegan and Jonas Meckling, ‘Fighting the Future: Short Term Investors and Business Opposition to Climate Policy in which they’ scour US corporate data for answers to why some businesses oppose regulatory climate policies more frequently or intensely than others. Their focus? Not differences in company emissions intensity, already well studied, but differences in time horizon. Their conclusion? Businesses with more pressure to deliver short term results are more likely to more actively oppose climate policy. Some of this is a bit Captain Obvious, but there are a couple of gems in here, even if there’s a worrying reliance on US political donations data! Extra props must be given for the X-Files Movie reference in the title! One more things Tennant’s One More Thing is: the IEA Oil Market Report for April 2026 - free! Exciting! Full of uncertainty!  Frankie’s One More Thing is: a reconvening of Muskovic’s Methane Musings featuring the currently open DCCEEW consultation on the 2026 National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Scheme Updates, including updates to accounting for fugitive methane emissions from coal and gas mining! Luke’s One More Thing is: two shout outs! One for sometime co-host and friend of the pod, Alison Reeve, for the paper recommendation this week, plus one for another friend of the pod, Jan Rosenow, who continues to provide on-point analysis throughout the current, and previous, crises! And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to letmesumup.net to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

    1h 10m
  3. There Is Too Much: AEMO's 2026 Gas Statement of Opportunities

    APR 10 ·  BONUS • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    There Is Too Much: AEMO's 2026 Gas Statement of Opportunities

    Menzel is off in a board meeting or something but never fear! On this week's bonus episode Frankie and Tennant dish the dirt on the 2026 Gas Statement of Opportunities from the Australian Energy Market Operator.

    34 min

  4. APR 9

    IEEFA Grease Megamix: Fuel Crises, They’re Multiplying / And We’re Losing Control / So The Answer Is Clean Supplying / And Electrifying

    Grab your limited edition ‘Energy Sovereignty Now!’ t-shirts! There is now an insufficiency of energy sufficiency AND sovereignty tees in the world, but don’t worry, the LMSU merch store has got you covered! Promises made, promises kept folks - grab your limited edition t-shirt right here. Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for the latest episode of My Little GSOO™ This week Tennant and Frankie give Luke the slip as we unpack AEMO’s 2026 Gas Statement of Opportunities. Electrification at pace? You betcha! Gas import terminals? Some still like ‘em! Global fuel crisis? So far unaccounted for, but we can’t say the same for one c-word. Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon to check it out. — Wouldn’t you know, the world is *still* cray cray, but extant so let’s take that win! The PM is one national address into this crisis and throw in the National Cabinet’s latest four point plan (the National Fuel Security Plan) and some COVID-style PTSD is kicking in! But not to worry folks, we are at Level Two and the message is very much Don’t Panic, Take The Train Or Work From Home If You Can. We reckon this is a fascinating exercise in laying down markers for messaging that will be ramped up, and we’ll continue to speculate over some of the woolier bits in Levels 3 and 4. WATCH THIS SPACE. Our main course There’s no shortage of ideas abounding at the moment on how exactly not to waste the current fuel crisis, but your intrepid hosts landed upon the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis’ latest paper, ‘The perfect storm to boost energy security: How Australia can reduce its oil exposure in the wake of the Iran conflict.’ Brought to us by Kevin Morrison and Amandine Denis-Ryan, the crew at IEEFA do a splendid job of laying out the history and context around Australia’s current predicament of much more marginal reserves than our IEA counterparts and while they’re at it, serve up a menu of sensible solutions on the supply and demand side, to ensure we don’t find ourselves in this particular pickle again. Bilateral crisis supply agreements? We’re seeing some signs of that! Electrification and energy efficiency? That sounds like a thing we’re about! One more things Tennant’s One More Thing is: true nerd appreciation for the just launched Artemis II! A cool, technically stupendous and peaceful adventure into space! Fun fact: Apollo-era NASA took funding peaking at about 4.6% of US GDP to land men on the moon. Artemis-era NASA is rebooting this while getting about 0.1% of US GDP Frankie’s One More Thing is: A plug for the NSW Net Zero Commission's advice to the NSW Government intended to help inform the work underway for the new NSW Net Zero Plan to 2025, due to be released in mid-2026. They’re big on electrification and methane, and Frankie is, unsurprisingly, a fan. Luke’s One More Thing is: the just released movie of The Magic Faraway Tree. Luke had some trepidation noting Enid Blyton’s outsized impact on his childhood reading, but the ultimate verdict was 3 out of 5 stars - from Menzel and his younguns! And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to letmesumup.net to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

    1h 37m

  5. MAR 26

    Oil’s Well That Ends Wells: The Crisis The IEA Was Born For

    Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for the political commentary BoCo pod you didn’t know you needed in your life! Politics junkies? Guilty as charged! Nothing was going to keep your intrepid hosts from grabbing the popcorn and settling in to watch the SA election this past weekend. Run, don’t walk, over to www.letmesumup.net and subscribe to our Patreon to hear what we make of the Malinauskas empire and an orange wave. -- The world is still cray cray and your intrepid hosts are here to bear witness to what Fatih Birol has called a fuel crisis worse in its impact than the two 70s oil crises combined. CRIKEY was that a wake-up call for us Aussies who hadn’t yet seen electricity or gas prices spike, but started using public transport and buying more EVs as fuel prices hit $3/L. Where to next you ask? Who knows what batshit crazy moves the orange man will make, but the more uncertainty over where its all going creates delay in supply chains readjusting to the new reality. And could we finally see the imposition of a gas export tax that actually collects revenue? WILD TIMES.  Our main course While Dr Birol - longtime IEA maestro - was on Australian shores, he was spruiking their hot-off-the-press report ‘Sheltering from Oil Shocks: measures to reduce impacts on households and businesses’ which promotes a menu of ten options to cut oil consumption through demand side measures. What’s on the IEA wishlist? Public transport! Carpooling! Slowing down on highways! More efficient truck driving! Don’t fly for work! Change to electric cooking! And some doozies that maybe won’t go down well in some quarters (yep, the ol’ WORK FROM HOME idea). This is a striking bit of comms from the IEA. Absolutely right to focus on the here and now, but the longer term actions like ramping up EVs, electrification and reducing reliance on fossil fuels altogether appeared in a modest epilogue. It had your intrepid hosts wondering if the US threat to the IEA to drop that crazy net zero stuff is having an impact. Time will most surely tell! One more things Tennant’s One More Thing is: a Fraunhofer Institute study of data from 1 million European cars, indicating PHEVs use 3x the fuel they are estimated to using regulatory tests. The reasons: drivers don’t plug them in that much; and the cars tend to run their fossil engines during electric mode more often than regulators assumed. Frankie’s One More Thing is: the formal establishment of Muskovic’s Methane Musings with the exciting development that NSW EPA have just announced they WILL IN FACT regulate methane emissions from coal mining. Luke’s One More Thing is: a shameless plug for the Energy Efficiency Council’s annual conference, coming up in Sydney on May 27-28 at which some guy who apparently does another energy podcast, (Michael Liebreich?) will in fact appear in all three dimensions and corporeal form in Sydney at this conference. If you’ve heard of him, I guess you better go check it out. And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to letmesumup.net to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

    1h 24m
  6. There Is Too Much: The 2026 South Australian Election

    MAR 26 ·  BONUS • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    There Is Too Much: The 2026 South Australian Election

    You intrepid hosts unpack it all – the ascent of God King Malinauskas; the collapse in the Liberal vote, and the ascendency of One Nation. May contain tangential references to energy and climate.

    27 min
  7. There Is Too Much: Resources Sector Plan with Dr. Mary Stewart

    MAR 13 ·  BONUS • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    There Is Too Much: Resources Sector Plan with Dr. Mary Stewart

    We complete our odyssey through the Albanese Government's six sector plans by taking on the final plan, Resources, with the expert assistance of Dr. Mary Stewart. Plus some bonus bonus reflections on the future of sector plans!

    37 min

  8. MAR 12

    The General Theory Of Fossil Death Spirals

    Another regional conflict precipitating another energy security crisis has your intrepid hosts feeling some deja vu as we find ourselves in an increasingly familiar setting as we contemplate the opportunities and challenges presented in the current US-Israel war on Iran. Beyond the horrific human toll of the Trump administration’s latest incoherent, all-tactics-no-strategy foray into the Middle East, there are some complex consequences to world energy markets playing out and it’s too soon to tell where this all goes from here. Global oil prices? Spiking! And likely to lead to airfare cost increases. Gas prices? Also spiking! But not in Australia, say whaaat? Like we said, ‘It’s Complicated’. Our main course We stick solidly ON THEME this week with ‘Fossil energy minimum viable scale: unseen infrastructural threats to safety and decarbonization may arise as fossil energy systems are phased out’ from Joshua Lappen and Emily Grubert, published recently in Science. This compact paper packs a punch and has a couple of big ideas to engage with. One is that energy transition types have been want to assume legacy fossil fuel infrastructure will carry on at the required capacity over the required timeframes to see replacement renewables in place. NOT SO say our authors, who contend that minimum viable scales for operation are not well understood and are certainly not being factored into planning for the transition, when it comes to physical, financial and managerial constraints. Their advice? DO better modelling, planning and managing of these issues at an asset level. Elements of this paper felt super familiar (hello gas distribution network death spiral) whole others worrying novel (oh hi there fuel-refinery-that-won’t-operate-under-65%-capacity). Liked the provocations here we did! One more things Tennant’s One More Thing is: Cloud Carrier’s proposal to power a new data centre in NSW entirely by natural gas. Lots of debates sure to come! Frankie’s One More Thing is: continued excitement at all things methane abatement focused, from the CCA’s stated priority to look at this in 2026 to the NSW EPA’s consultation on measures it may implement to reduce or destroy fugitive methane emissions from coal mining. Luke’s One More Thing is: listener voicemail from none other than Baethan Mullen, CEO of the Superpower Institute, who left us a note with his reaction to our reaction to their recent paper on pricing carbon pollution. Thanks TSI for keeping us busy reading your excellent work! And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head to letmesumup.net to support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!

    1h 10m
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About

Your regular deep dive into recent reports on climate and energy with Frankie Muskovic, Luke Menzel and Tennant Reed. Because there is too much.

Information

  • Creator
    Tennant Reed, Luke Menzel, Frankie Muskovic
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    143
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024 Let Me Sum Up
  • Show Website
    Let Me Sum Up
  • Provider
    L.A MENZEL & F MUSKOVIC & T.R REED

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