Antinuclear

Australia’s Liberal Party out to kill Renewable Energy – but what’s their alternative?

There must come a point where the nation’s Liberal leaders and aspiring leaders come clean on their plans for renewable energy. If it is not something they want to support then they should be ready to let us know what is their alternative.

New laws toss energy jobs to the wind, The Age,2 Sept 11, The nation is poorer for the Liberals’ stance on the ‘green-collar’ sector. IT IS a telling coincidence that Premier Ted Baillieu’s new anti-wind farm laws have been sharing the headlines with Australia’s manufacturing malaise. The Clean Energy Council estimates the laws will drive $3.6 billion of investment away from Victoria.

Pacific Hydro has announced it will cease building wind farms in Victoria after it completes projects with existing planning approval, and community-owned wind projects near Castlemaine and Woodend are now in doubt.

The winner of the Premier’s own Sustainability Award, the Hepburn Community Wind Farm near Daylesford, almost certainly would not have been built under these laws.

Despite protests from Planning Minister Matthew Guy, the prospect of thousands of new jobs for Victoria in a burgeoning “green-collar” industry is now very much off the table. And all this without the government identifying what problem the laws are trying to solve…….

This story of lost opportunity has resonance for my home town of Ballarat, whose manufacturing base was severely shaken by the financial crisis of 2009.

The wind industry offers a range of jobs beyond manufacturing of equipment, including parts supply, maintenance and training services. With 1800 megawatts of new wind farms currently approved to proceed within 100 kilometres of the city, Ballarat was in an ideal position to use this one-off burst of activity to establish new jobs in these fields.

But the clampdown on development in Victoria, and fears that New South Wales could go the same way under Liberal Premier Barry O’Farrell, make that unlikely. Without an ongoing domestic market, industry does not have the incentive to invest and Ballarat will be the loser……..

There must come a point where the nation’s Liberal leaders and aspiring leaders come clean on their plans for renewable energy. If it is not something they want to support then they should be ready to let us know what is their alternative.
New laws toss energy jobs to the wind

September 2, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics