Since the Australian Energy Market Operator's report earlier this year warning of severe gas shortages damaging energy security in several states, the government has scrambled to cobble together a strategy to stave off what would be a disaster for homes and industry in coming years.

The government's planned intervention in gas exports rattled shareholders who sent Santos shares tumbling as uncertainty clouded the proposal. Indeed, there are many elements of this plan that are unclear, not surprising given the haste with which the government is trying to find solutions. For a start, how will gas companies forge contracts with customers with the prospect of intervention hanging over them?

The Coalition's move risks growing uncertainty around gas exports for companies, likely to give the industry headaches. While it's not the best or only solution to the problem, the government has been forced into it given previous failures to prevent national shortages.

Long before the AEMO report there were warnings that Australia was slouching towards an energy crisis, and governments - including Mr Turnbull's - failed to act. Unfortunately for the Coalition, many of its causes have their origins in the decisions of previous state and federal governments.

There was the approval of three export terminals in the Queensland port town of Gladstone, which allowed companies on the east coast to ship their gas overseas for the first time.

The Gillard government allowed the creation of an export gas industry on the east coast that saw three producers sign massive contracts with Japan, leading to two-thirds of the gas produced being sold offshore. Since then, the local price has rocketed from the long-term norm of $3 to $4 a gigajoule into double figures.

As energy analyst Bruce Robertson of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said, any other country that allowed a company to dig up its resources and profit would also have ensured its domestic supply was guaranteed.

Sadly, the looming gas shortage is another chapter in Australia's long history of mishandling its extraordinary wealth of energy resources.

The government can't select which parts of the problem it wants to solve. It also needs solutions without the poll dividends it obviously expects from the appeal of its export intervention to 'Australia First' sentiment. Unless it seriously looks elsewhere for other fixes, it's open to criticism for trying make hay from a problem that needs more leadership and less politics.

State governments in NSW and Victoria may have confounded the energy problem by restricting gas exploration, but the Turnbull government should look at other actors too, particularly companies accused of sitting on permits, not developing them and restricting supply.

New pipelines easing access to new gas fields, and better monitoring of gas company behaviour, could go a long way to improving supply and cutting prices. They'd be tougher sells, but Australia passed on an easier fix long ago.