Antinuclear

How the Renewable Energy Target benefits Tasmania (despite claims by Sen Jacqui Lambie)

Tasmania big net beneficiary from RET, Australia Institute report finds, SMH November 28, 2014 Peter Hannam

The report found the state generated about $125 million in renewable energy certificates in 2013 under the federal scheme with costs from consumers of only about $22.5 million.

One target of the report is claims by four big power users in the state that the RET was costing them alone $20 million a year, placing at risk thousands of jobs in the struggling state.

That claim was “bogus”, with partial exemption certificates covering 40-67 per cent of their costs under the scheme usually omitted from the analysis, Matt Grudnoff, a senior economist at the institute and author of the report, said………

The Australia Institute report is also aimed at discouraging newly independent Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie adding her vote to the RET cut plan.

However, her chief of staff, Rob Messenger, said “trite, little studies” were unlikely to sway the former Palmer United Party senator’s views……..

Senator Lambie’s vote, should it swing to the Coalition, won’t alone be enough to force through a reduction of the RET.

So long as Labor and the Greens remain united in their opposition to the move, they need only Senator Nick Xenophon and the two remaining PUP senators  – Dio Wang and Glenn Lazarus – to give them the 38 votes required to block any change. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/tasmania-big-net-beneficiary-from-ret-australia-institute-report-finds-20141128-11vbz9.html

November 29, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | energy, Tasmania