Hello

This website is brought to you from the front row of getting the stuff in the ground we need for Australia's energy transition.

It's very messy here. It's one of the most important things that Australia will ever do. But it is rife with some of the weirdest, most inconsistent, and poorly executed planning and environment issues of any type of development in Australia.

Due to federation, each state and territory in Australia has a different planning and environment system. This means that in each state and territory, the way to develop and operate renewable energy projects is different. There are inconsistencies, duplications, different assessment frameworks, and different departments.

On top of this is different politics, different departmental approaches to assessment, different communities with different interests, and a plethora of land-use issues like how to not develop renewable energy projects without trashing the environment at the same time.

A lot of advocacy and policy work goes on behind the scenes, but rarely talked about really openly. This isn't because anyone in the sector has anything to hide. Rather it's because the issues are complicated, nuanced, subjective, and technical. The environment and planning side of the renewable energy transition cannot be reduced to campaign or news headlines, and it's too important to talk about at a superficial level.

Most planning and environment issues in the renewable energy transition are treated, mostly by people who don't actually know what they're talking about, as 'just cut the red tape' or 'make the approvals process more certain and timely'. The response from people who do know what they're talking about, like the authors of this blog, is 'lol where and how'.

So, the Messy Middle is here to navigate this stuff more openly. I'll be writing about the complexity, the challenges, the absurdity, the enraging delays and the motivating wins.

At the end of the day we need the renewable energy transition to keep lights on and decarbonise the energy sector. How we do that the smartest and most respectful way possible requires all of us to wallow into the mess.

So, welcome to The Messy Middle.

(Oh, and if you're going to use my work for your work please just cite me appropriately. I know that a wide range of folks from government through to advocacy organisations have relied on my thoughts and opinions in some way - and have signed up! - so just make sure I am credited!)

About me

I'm a planning and environment lawyer by trade who has worked across public interest and industry matters - including litigation, law reform, policy, and advocacy - for the better part of 15 years. Most recently my work has focussed on Australia's renewable energy transition and navigating a pathway through the deep complexity of maintaining the pace and scale required to keep lights on and decarbonise the energy sector without trashing the joint at the same time.

I have a day job, and the views that I express here are entirely mine and have absolutely nothing to do with my employer. You can learn more about my credentials and professional shenanigans on my LinkedIn profile.

You can also contract me to undertake policy analysis, advice, and law reform on all things planning and environment and renewable energy development. I can also present at your conference, appear on your podcast, or provide media commentary or backgrounding. Get in contact here if you think I can help you out with something.

My use of AI (such that it can be called)

I do not, and will not ever, use an LLM to write. All the words you see on this blog are written and edited by me in my own style. All the typos are proudly mine. I have been using the em-dash for literally decades so don't come at me if you see it. Believe it or not its use predates LLMs.

I do use Kagi Assistant to help me with research because it is pretty much an un-enshittified search engine. I check everything it spits out to confirm accuracy. I pay for the Kagi search engine because it is an un-enshittifed search engine and it has excellent privacy features.