Antinuclear

Under questioning in a Senate estimates committee, the government revealed that the Warburton review cost $587,329 – not including incidentals such as accommodation, or the salaries of staff seconded to the review…….

the costs included:

– $287,468 to modelers ACIL Allen – whose modeling, under instructions from the government, included assessing the cost of coal-fired generation while ignoring climate, carbon, financing risk, as well as community opposition. In other words, to ignore commercial reality.–

– Dick Warburton, the former Caltex chairman, climate change denier andpro-nuclear advocate, received $73,000 for his role as chairman (the review process ran less than six months).

– Brian Fisher, who RenewEconomy revealed on Monday had installed a subsidised solar system on his farm this month, after recommending that solar subsidies be ditched, received $39,900. That would be about enough to install a 20kW system, about four times the size of the solar system that Fisher installed – not that the local network would have allowed him.

– Shirley In’t Veld, another climate skeptic and former head of WA’s Verve nergy, received $43,900.

– And Matt Zema, the CEO of the Australian Energy Market Operator, who was sitting in a “private” capacity, received $29,700.

Archer was given an uncomfortable time in the Senate Estimates committee by Greens leader Christine Milne, who asked if the Warburton Review had gone beyond its terms of reference, which was specifically to assess the price impact of the RET on consumers. (You can see it here).

Why, she asked, had the Warburton review ignored the cheapest options, and chosen the two most expensive options that would cause the biggest rises in consumer prices, the least investment, the least jobs, the biggest rise in emissions, and the greatest benefit ($9.3 billion according to the panel itself) to the coal industry?

Did it occur to the government, Milne asked, that the government had been misled by the panel – which advocated that the target be closed to new entrants, or reduced to a “real” 20 per cent target, rather than the current 41,000GWh target……….

CCA chairman Bernie Fraser told the Senate estimates committee on Monday that it will be a “limited review” because of time constraints.

“We do have a fair bit of knowledge and experience about the RET arrangements from the initial report finished 18 months ago. And we will have access to the public submissions to the Warburton Review, and the modeling that done for that review.

“That will be part of the grist to our mill,” he added, before noting that there was “quite an array of modeling out here.”

As Fraser noted, the CCA will make its judgment “independent” of the Warburton review, or the influence of Abbott’s office. That will provide an interesting backdrop to the negotiations between the Abbott government and the Labor party to try to find a “bipartisan” deal. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/warburton-review-complete-waste-money-86396