Tony Abbott the man for a fossil fuel future for Australia
the Coalition’s refusal to recognise the CEFC as anything more valuable than a political football has been obstinate and single-minded…… Only a leader willing to ignore the threat Australia faces from its dependence on fossil fuels could so easily ignore the value of a body whose sole purpose is bringing down the cost of renewable power for all Australians.
Abbott clings to a fossil fuel future, CLIMATE SPECTATOR, Andrew Bray, 24 Apr 2012 In Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, Lord Darlington pins the cynic as “a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
As Tony Abbott tries to paint himself as an environmentalist, it’s worth asking the question: does he understand the value of renewable energy sufficiently to outweigh his finely honed sense of political opportunity?
While his address to the Australian Industry Group last Friday made not a single mention of renewable energy, greatly increased levels of renewable energy are a crucial part of any scenario that protects Australia’s environment into the future while also boosting our economy.
Volunteers with the 100 per cent Renewable campaign have been visiting Abbott lately at forums for the Liberal Party faithful to ask him about big solar. His favourite response has been “when the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow, the power don’t flow.”
Depending on your reading of this you could draw one of two conclusions: either he is demonstrating his knack for changing his tune to suit the audience (think ‘climate change is absolute crap’ delivered to the out of town audience in Beaufort in country Victoria). Or the other, possibly more disturbing aspect is that he fundamentally misunderstands a global industry worth $240 billion last year, for which Australia enjoys huge advantages in our sun and wind resources.
The Coalition’s failure to engage with the thinking behind the Clean Energy Finance Corporation is an example that shows both dimensions at work.
The report, released last week by the Expert Review Panel Chair, Jillian Broadbent, a Reserve Bank board member and respected businesswoman of 30 years’ experience, is a clear-headed assessment of what the renewable energy industry needs to establish itself in Australia…..
Cheaper power from non-polluting sources is a benefit that Australia desperately needs.
Our electricity generation sector is deeply dependent on coal and gas, which are both subject to serious upward cost pressure. The IEA predicts the price of coal-fired power will increase to pay for its greenhouse gas emissions and the NSW government warns that domestic gas prices will rise to meet the international gas price, which currently sits around three times higher .
On the other side of the coin, the cost of renewable power globally has decreased dramatically. The classic example is solar panels, which the Clean Energy Council estimates now cost a third of what they did three years ago due to thesharp drop in module prices. For larger scale plants, however, the big gains in cost efficiency are to be made in local engineering and financing and this can only be achieved through deployment.
Unlocking these cost savings in a sector as crucial to our economy as energy is the true value of the CEFC.
But the Coalition’s refusal to recognise the CEFC as anything more valuable than a political football has been obstinate and single-minded…… Only a leader willing to ignore the threat Australia faces from its dependence on fossil fuels could so easily ignore the value of a body whose sole purpose is bringing down the cost of renewable power for all Australians. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Abbott-renewables-fossil-fuel-energy-solar-CEFC-pd20120424-TN348?opendocument&src=rss
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