Will the loons cause energy chaos AGAIN?

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Via The Australian, even as just about every business interest in the country and world condemns the Trump Paris dump:

A breakaway group of Coalition MPs is urging Malcolm Turnbull to consider pulling Australia out of the Paris climate accord after Donald Trump abandoned the agreement and shattered the international consensus on limiting global temperature increases.

…Mr Turnbull signalled he would stare down backbench dissent over the Paris accord, confirming the government was standing by its commitment to reduce emissions by 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. He also sought to play down the impact of Mr Trump’s announcement, noting the President was delivering on an election promise. “The President’s announcement is not a surprise. It was a very core campaign commitment of his. It is disappointing,” Mr Turnbull said in Singapore. “We would prefer the US to remain part of the agreement. We are committed to the Paris Agreement.”

Several Coalition backbenchers spoke out to question the value of the Paris Agreement and whether Australia should reconsider its involvement. Queensland senator Ian Macdonald called for a review to consider an Australian withdrawal, arguing Mr Trump’s decision would “bring a new serious look at the whole question of climate change”.

…Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen said he did not subscribe to the theory of “catastrophic anthropogenic climate change”, describing the Paris Agreement as “pretty much pointless”.

Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz said the US withdrawal required Australia to “reconsider our own approach”, while NSW colleague Craig Kelly said the government should “monitor” Australian involvement.

This is not really an issue today. But it’s a worry going forward given Do-Labor Malcolm is probably going to lose the leadership to a loon later this year. The only thing we know about alternative leadership aspirant, Creepy Pete, is that he hates boatwogs and pooftas. But he is a card carrying loon ponder and his one dalliance with climate change – joking about our Pacific Islands neighbours sinking – does not bode well.

For now, at least, Do-Labor Malcolm has given up his caustic attack on renewables. The about to be released Finkel Report also supports ongoing commitment to carbon mitigation, also at The Australian:

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The electricity industry would have to meet a new low-emissions target that favoured only clean coal-fired power sourced through carbon capture and storage (CCS) and delivered greater subsidies for gas and renewables, under recommendations to be put to the Turnbull government next week.

Significantly, rule changes to the National Electricity Market will include the requirement that all new large-scale renewable projects have storage capacity such as batteries to address ongoing ­reliability issues.

The Weekend Australian understands that the Finkel review of the National Electricity Market will set a benchmark carbon emissions target for the industry ­— ­expected to be about 0.7 tonnes of CO2 a megawatt hour.

It will also place stricter ­reliability rules on new large-scale renewable projects.

The final report to be delivered to the Council of Australian Governments on Friday has ­aban­doned the preferred energy intensity scheme in favour of a low emissions target (LET) that would be “energy-neutral” but ­indirectly penalise coal without CCS.

The new target would be separate from the Renewable Energy Target.

Industry groups, briefed on the report, have been told it would provide tradable clean-energy certificates for low-emissions generation, such as wind, solar and gas, and coal-fired power with CCS. Energy retailers and large industrial users would then be ­required to source a mandated amount of certified clean power.

Laugh out loud. A carbon price in other words. Let’s hope is goes forward. I won’t hold my breath as the loons close in on Do-Labor Malcolm.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.