Antinuclear

I see this deal as a very dodgy one for  the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, (ARENA)   ARENA is fighting for its life –  no guarantee that it will survive beyond 2014.  The Business Council of Australia (BCA) is bribing it to include the wasteful and useless Carbon Capture and Storage project to be included in ARENA’s brief.  And that’s not all.  Look out for those weasel words “low emissions technologies”.  For the BCA, tied as it is to nuclear lobby enthusiasts, “low emissions technologies” include nuclear power. Matthew Franklin reported, in  The Australian  March 01, 2011  on a BCA report arguing  that “the nation must consider all power sources to meet rising energy needs, including nuclear power”

The Business Council of Australia proposals for ARENA are contained in a paper that also urges a swift bipartisan deal on the renewable energy target.

Under a deal that the government struck with the crossbenchers in order to get the $2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund through the Senate, the government promised that it would not reintroduce bills to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the ARENA in the spring sitting ­period — which guarantees it would not be abolished before the end of 2014.

In its report on energy policy, the BCA calls for the ARENA’s mandate to be expanded so that as well as overseeing the renewable energy sector it supported “emerging low-emission technology and systems”……….

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told the Senate on ­October 30 that the “government’s position is that we are committed to the abolition” of the ARENA and the CEFC………

On the RET, the paper says that, unless a compromise deal is reached on the target, ­investment in wind energy could stall.

“Unless a compromise deal can be reached on the RET, ­investment in wind is unlikely to occur, creating the risk of higher electricity prices for consumers,” the paper says.

The Coalition is pushing Labor MPs to agree to cut the large-scale target. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/renewable-energy-agency-will-back-ccs-if-reform-redrawn/story-e6frg6xf-1227117617594