AFTER a decade of internecine warfare on energy policy, the federal Coalition appears to have settled on a mid-way approach that accepts - and encourages - the development of renewable power, but which argues the need for a substantially expanded domestic gas supply, both for electricity generation and for industrial and household use more broadly.
Large parts of the environmental lobby will - on past experience - object to this approach on the simplistic view that all fossil fuels are bad, and that renewable energy sources can do the job without gas as a "transitional" fuel.
On the present evidence, that's a tall order.
As we have pointed out before, energy storage - both for the predictable night-day cycle as well as for times of unsuitable weather - is nowhere near capable of "firming up" our existing renewable output: let alone for a future grid where wind and solar provide more than the 15 per cent of electricity demand that they meet at present.
Much is made of wind and solar being cheaper than coal-fired power.
And it is, when it's available.
But the government is arguing that we will need reliable fossil fuel generated electricity for some decades to come, and if it's not going to be coal, then it must be gas: hence all the talk about a "gas-fired recovery".
To that end, the government's National Gas Infrastructure Plan interim report - published today - looks at expanding and reinforcing Australia's east coast gas assets over the next 20 years.
Next week's Budget will contain details of tens of millions of dollars in what the government calls "targeted support" for various gas-related projects.
Although more detail may be yet to come, it appears that two high-profile gas projects in this region - Snowy Hydro's Kurri Kurri power station proposal, and the controversial PEP-11 exploration area off the Hunter to Sydney coast - are not referenced directly in the available documents.
In Kurri's case this could be because the plan is about gas supply, rather than gas consumption, but it may be a telling omission, given that the government owns Snowy Hydro.
Similarly, there is no mention of PEP-11 despite Narrabri and new areas on the Victorian gas fields listed as sources of expanded production.
Time will tell.
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