گزینه های سیاسی هنگامی که ارزش بازار اثرات جانبی منفی می دهد: سیاست گذاری انرژی پاک و تجدید ساختار بخش انرژی استرالیای غربی

Uncertainty surrounds the choice of instruments that internalise fossil-fuel pollution at the local, regional and global level. This work outlines the considerable growth in the Western Australian (WA) energy sector and explores the available options and potential hazards of using specific instruments to internalise externalities. These core options are discussed with respect to liberalising energy markets, providing private investment certainty, and imparting commentary on the developments and consequences of reform in the WA context. As a large energy exporter, providing certainty for the WA energy sector investment and the community is necessary to maintain the current prosperity. Remarkably, in the decades of market reform progress, the absence of one essential element is evident: economic externalities. Policymakers are under increasing pressure to understand economic reform, new energy markets and the multifaceted repercussions they entail. With modern energy reform sitting squarely within the milieu of more efficient governments and climate policy, there are clear economic advantages to internalising negative and positive externalities and other market distortions during energy market developments. Ignoring market failures when commercialising government-owned energy utilities in de-regulated and competitive markets invites continued ad-hoc government interference that generates investment uncertainty in addition to a perplexed electorate.

As externalities are a form of market failure, government interventions are justified in order to minimise their distortionary market influence and impact on the community (Gregory Mankiw et al., 2000; Foxon et al., 2005; Jaffe et al., 2005). The recent Western Australian (WA) gas crisis caused by the June 3 explosion at Varanus Island was an example of such an intervention. Lack of long-term energy supply security planning in the WA energy development decisions lead to this single mishap cutting State gas supplies by one-third. While technically not defined as an externality, energy supply security issues distort energy markets in a similar manner to externalities and should also be incorporated into energy market restructuring (Owen, 2004; Garnaut, 2008).

Globally, policy analyses have increasingly focused on the effects of negative externalities on human health, environmental quality, economic development, or institutional objectives such as emissions growth management (Peterson and Rose, 2006). Providing regional certainty for private industry and the community in places similar to Western Australia is necessary to maintain economic prosperity into the medium to long-term. There is growing pressure on policymakers to comprehend the complicated worlds of economic reform and energy markets to make decisions regarding the future energy supply systems we choose to construct. Economic efficiency is crucial for good energy policies because the energy sector represents a huge capital investment. Any small inefficiency can send considerable repercussions throughout the economy. With energy reform sitting squarely within the milieu of climate policy, there is a logic to internalising negative externalities in the course of existing energy market evolution.