Labor warns Government's National Energy Guarantee will lead to renewables lag
ABC NEWS
April 20 2018
The Federal Government's latest energy plan will mean no new renewable energy projects would be built in Australia for a decade, the Opposition says.
Following Friday's meetings, state and territory energy ministers have agreed with federal counterpart Josh Frydenberg that discussions can continue on the National Energy Guarantee (NEG).
The NEG is aimed at overcoming a decade of policy uncertainty in Australia as well as ensuring a reliable and affordable supply of power that also helps Australia meet its climate targets.
Under those targets, emissions from the electricity sector should be cut by 26 per cent compared to 2005 levels by 2030.
Mr Frydenberg said "there is still a lot of work to be done", but he hoped the states and territories would sign up to the NEG at another meeting in August.
While states agreed to keep talking about the NEG at Friday's meetings, some are scathing about that target, arguing it is too low to drive any new investment.
Queensland Labor Minister Anthony Lynham is a reluctant proponent of continuing the talks.
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He said the major sticking point was the lack of detail provided by the Commonwealth about how the energy plan would work.
"[We are] surprised and disappointed because we need that detail to … do a comprehensive analysis of the policy before we make a decision," he said.
Dr Lynham said fundamental elements of the policy remained a mystery, including the way emissions reductions would be divided up between the states and territories.
"Do Queensland and other Labor states do the heavy lifting and we find other states dragging behind us?" he said.
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Federal Labor predicts stagnation in the renewable energy sector would force power prices up and put extra pressure to cut emissions on farmers, as well as the building and transport sectors.
Labor's energy spokesman, Mark Butler, said Labor wanted to see a bipartisan solution to what he called a "deep energy crisis".
But he also said in its current form, the NEG would mean not a single new renewable energy project would be built in Australia for an entire decade from 2020 to 2030.
"That will obviously see jobs and investment in that critically important industry fall off the edge of a cliff," Mr Butler said.
He argued the lack of investment in the new system would see power prices rise for households and businesses.
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Mr Butler said that would simply handball the job of cutting pollution and tackling climate change to other industries that do not have the same capacity to cut emissions as the electricity sector does.
Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten said if the NEG did not have "fair dinkum targets for renewable energy", jobs and investment would be undermined, pushing up power prices.
"I have concerns at this stage that Mr Turnbull is still hostage to the knuckle-draggers of the right wing of the Liberal and National Party, because he is proposing very unambitious, modest targets for renewable energy," Mr Shorten said.
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Labor Warns Govt On National Energy Plan (Read 766 times)
