Last week small electricity retailers were bleeding so badly they doubled their prices and asked their customers to leave.

This week it’s a big gas retailer, as Australia belatedly faces the same pain that hit and wiped out UK energy retailers:

Gas retailer Weston Energy’s collapse stirs call for Labor intervention

Perry Williams, The Australian

Weston Energy, which provides gas to more than 400 companies and government agencies, ceased trading with immediate effect on Monday, creating uncertainty for major manufacturers with 7 per cent of the east coast’s commercial and industrial market forced to find a new supplier.

The company said it could no longer finance cash flow requirements of its trading portfolio “on a timely basis” with prices rising over 180 per cent since April, and almost three times higher than at the start of the year.

These are blistering rises in costs:

With spot gas prices up to four times higher than normal levels and wholesale electricity prices in NSW on track to finish the June quarter twice as high as the previous record, Mr Willox called on the Albanese government to respond.

It’s a cult.

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