Government in no hurry to reach agreement on Renewable Energy Target?
Renewable energy target compromise deal within reach but no time frame set, Greg Hunt says ABC News PM By David Mark 6 Mar 15 Environment Minister Greg Hunt says an agreement with Labor and the renewable energy industry on the renewable energy target (RET) is “within reach”, but it seems there are still sticking points and different views from within Government.
The Clean Energy Council, which represents the renewable energy industry, is also confident of reaching a deal soon, but the office of Industry Minister Ian McFarlane said there would not be any deal this week and stated the deal was in the hands of Labor.
Clean Energy Council chief executive Kane Thornton said the past year since the Government announced a review of the RET had left the industry in limbo.
“The industry has been frozen, certainly for the past year,” he said.
“On average we’ve seen about $2 billion worth of investment in large-scale renewable energy into Australia — in the last year that collapsed down to just $240 million.
“There have been businesses that have closed, there have been people that have lost their jobs.”
The original target of the RET set in 2008 was 41,000 gigawatt hours, or 20 per cent of demand of renewable electricity by 2020.
The Government has since argued the actual figure should be 26,000 gigawatt hours, or what it called a “real 20 per cent”, due to falling household electricity consumption.
Ever since, all sides have been trying for a compromise.
Mr Thornton said a “good resolution” to the issue could see projects “come out of the deep freeze, start to be pushed again”.
“We’ll see employment numbers start to lift and we can expect a lot of momentum in the industry in years ahead,” he said.
Encouraging and constructive’ talks with Labor, industry
Mr Hunt and Mr McFarlane have been meeting the Clean Energy Council and Labor.
A figure of 31,000 gigawatt hours was put up on Monday, but the industry and Labor rejected that.
However, Mr Hunt on Thursday said the parties were close to an agreement and were making “real, significant and important” progress………
Neither Mr Hunt nor Mr Thornton will say exactly what sort of final figure they will agree on, but clearly the Government is moving up from 31,000 gigawatt hours and the Clean Energy Council is moving down.
“We’d obviously like this resolved with a number in the mid-to-high 30,000s,” Mr Thornton said.
“Government has previously put forward a proposal at 31,000, which we don’t find acceptable.
“But we are now having a conversation about bringing those two numbers together and finding a solution that works for everyone.”
No time frame for reaching agreement, Hunt says
However, the message from the wings is subtly different, with each side seeming to say the ball is in the other’s court…….http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-05/renewable-energy-target-deal-within-reach-greg-hunt-says/6284446.
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