Antinuclear

If there was any doubt that the Abbott government wants to destroy the renewable energy industry in Australia, this week’s announcement of its plans for the Renewable Energy Target (RET) has cleared things up.

In a media conference this week, Energy Minister Ian Macfarlane said that the government wants to reduce the Renewable Energy Target. The target will be slashed from its current legislated figure of 41,000 gigawatt hours in 2020, to a figure that Macfarlane is calling a “real 20 per cent.”

The “real 20 per cent” is a classic bit of Coalition spin. If you look through the Howard government’s legislation for the RET, you will find no mention of a target of “20 per cent” renewable energy in 2020.

Instead, the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 specifies a set amount of renewable electricity generation: 41,000 gigawatt hours by 2020. That’s the law of the land. It was never a percentage figure…….

Many Coalition politicians would like to kill off the Renewable Energy Target altogether. But, unlike the carbon tax, renewable energy is extremely popular in the electorate, making such a move rather tricky. Matters aren’t helped by the fact that the RET was originally put in place by the Howard government, and has been bipartisan policy for both major parties ever since. The Coalition went to the 2013 election with a firm promise to retain the RET in its current form.

Lacking the political courage to abolish the RET in its entirety, Tony Abbott and his cabinet decided to review the target instead. The man chosen to do this was noted climate skeptic and former fossil fuel executive Dick Warbuton………

we’re likely to see higher prices for wholesale electricity. ACIL Allen estimate that wholesale prices could be 32 per cent higher in 2020. The reason is that wind power is actually keeping wholesale prices for electricity down – as even the Warbuton review pointed out. Because big energy companies make money by selling electricity on the wholesale grid, they would gain hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps billions, in a “real 20 per cent” scenario.

Of course, for this to happen, the government needs to amend the RET legislation. ………

But the government doesn’t need to change the laws to damage the renewables industry. The ongoing uncertainty of the policy environment, and the sheer hostility of the Abbott government to renewables of any kind, are already having an effect……..https://newmatilda.com/2014/10/23/undermining-renewable-energy-target-costly-mistake