Renewable energy: Generate facts, not fights
LILY D’AMBROSIO, The Weekly Times
September 20, 2017
OUR Government knows that people are doing it tough right across the country with energy price rises.
The experts are clear that the main driver of this is a lack of national policy certainty.
There’s no doubt that we need more electricity supply and businesses need certainty to invest.
That’s why we’ve gone ahead with Victoria’s renewable energy targets.
We simply cannot afford to wait for Malcolm Turnbull and his shambolic government to get its act together.
In Victoria, the Liberals and Nationals have decided that if elected they will scrap VRET, and run a baseless scare campaign against renewable energy. This is incredibly irresponsible when you consider the facts.
VRET is endorsed by the independent market operator because it delivers much needed new supply. It will also create up to 11,000 new jobs, many of them in regional Victoria.
The independent Australian Energy Market Commission has also confirmed that prices will start to come down next year as more renewable energy comes online. This is largely driven by Victoria’s renewable energy targets.
There are no credible experts who blame renewable energy for driving up prices, it’s quite the opposite.
They’re a big part of the solution.
Renewable energy, including wind and solar, is the cheapest and quickest new build generation available.
The Federal Government’s own Finkel review supports this.
Our VRET is deliberately designed to complement a national scheme, if the Liberals and Nationals can stop squabbling and deliver it.
In response to the specific figures raised in last week’s The Weekly Times, the 3564 turbines claim is deeply misleading, inaccurate and a reflection on how this issue is being used as a political football by the Liberals and Nationals. The article also assumed that the VRET will only support wind farms, but there will also be large-scale solar. Even if as much as 80 per cent was all wind, this would equal between 700 and 1100 turbines.
Unfortunately the misleading claims made by Simon Ramsay, Liberal MP for Western Victoria, are yet another example of why we’re in this situation.
The Liberals and Nationals are playing politics plain and simple.
Whether it’s in Canberra or Victoria, they cannot agree among themselves and we’re all paying for their internal dysfunction. The toxic politics of this debate needs to end and we need to ensure the facts are at the heart of this debate.
● Lily D’Ambrosio is the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change.