IF Malcolm Turnbull had been the successful prime minister he promised to be, his frequent criticisms of the Liberal Party might carry more weight.
Instead, they indicate a failed politician ready to call out anyone who doesn't see things his way.
That said, his latest intervention, describing the right wing of the Liberals as "terrorists" on climate change and emissions reduction, does highlight the continued battles over energy policy, which Mr Turnbull described yesterday as a climate war still to be won.
Addressing an online forum organised by the Clean Energy Council - an industry peak body and lobby group - Mr Turnbull said the obstacles to a clean energy transition in Australia were not physical, economic or technological, but "entirely political".
If only that were true.
In a simplistic energy debate divided over fossil fuels, both sides are relying on unproven technologies.
Hydrogen is regularly touted as "the next big thing" in energy generation, with Mr Turnbull and others including Fortescue Group founder Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest touting "green hydrogen".
But in our reporting yesterday on Snowy Hydro's Kurri Kurri gas-powered electricity generator, analyst Bruce Robertson from the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis or IEEFA - one of the more hardline renewables advocates - criticised Labor's support for Snowy Hydro's Kurri Kurri gas plant because of its focus on hydrogen, describing it as "a technology that's unproven and whose costs are unknown".
That sounds more technical than political to us.
Snowy Hydro's Novocastrian chief executive, Paul Broad, has a decades-long reputation as an outspoken public servant and he has thrown another grenade into the debate with his prediction that a "a lot more" gas-fired power stations will be built in the coming years.
This is anathema to The Greens and a broad swathe of the population who are convinced both of the IPCC's looming climate catastrophe, and of the viability of a grid without baseload energy.
Australia can aspire to a world-leading position on climate change and renewable energy, but any global overhaul will ultimately be driven by the big countries.
Quasi-religious fervour for a better world will only take us so far.
We will get past coal and gas, but it will take a raft of technological breakthroughs that are not with us yet.
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