Antinuclear

As the world moves to renewable energy, Tony Abbott has tried to wreck development in Australia

Abbott lets Australia slip behind as renewable energy advances, Canberra Times June 20, 2015 Allen Hicks

While the vocal attack on wind farms and the renewable energy target generally were rounded on as being out of touch, few people seem to realise exactly how dangerous that thinking is, not only for the environment, but for our nation’s future economic prosperity.

Far from being at the crossroads on renewable energy, most of the world has moved on, embracing a range of technologies that provide sustainable, renewable, affordable power.

Wind power, which Abbott decried as awful and noisy, is not only a mature and proven technology, it is a major growth sector, with global installed capacity leaping 44 per cent in 2014 alone……..

Wind power is already cheaper than either coal or gas-fired power on the Australian electricity market, significantly so at $80 per megawatt hour, compared to a coal-power price of more than $140……..

At a time when Australia could lead the world on solar energy, wind power, and renewables research, Abbott has gutted the CSIRO and made himself deaf to the complaints of the energy industry.

Abbott has also pulled more than $1 billion out of Australia’s vocational education and training system in just 18 months, at the very time we need to be equipping our tradespeople and apprentices with the skills and knowledge to work on the energy systems of future.

As a union, this is a matter we simply cannot be silent about. We have a moral responsibility to embrace the technologies of the future, and to equip our people with the skills required to make the absolute most of them.

The alternative is to commit intergenerational vandalism: allowing ourselves to be led into an energy wilderness by an ideologue who has neither the capacity nor the will to understand the future of energy, and is willing to let our children and grandchildren pay the price of his inaction.

Allen Hicks is the Electrical Trades Union national secretary. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/wind-power-tony-abbott-wind-farms-20150620-ghqzbj

June 27, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics