Via The Australian:
Federal Labor has condemned Malcolm Turnbull’s national energy guarantee, declaring its “pathetic’’ emissions cuts will stifle renewable energy investment, threatening to extend a decade-long policy deadlock that has sent electricity prices soaring.
Labor hardened its position on the NEG yesterday as the government offered an olive branch to wavering states, pledging a review of the policy’s 26 per cent carbon emission targets after its first four years.
The concession was contained in a new NEG design report, obtained by The Australian, which also revealed energy retailers would be able to offset 5 per cent of required emissions reductions by purchasing Australian carbon credits.
The ruling follows a revelation by the designers of the NEG that the energy sector will have achieved a 24 per cent cut to 2005-level emissions by the time the policy gets under way, meaning power companies will be able to fully offset the remaining 2 per cent emissions cut they are required to make by 2030.
As said from the very outset, the NEG does nothing to end the climate wars. The emissions reduction target is simply buried under a mountain of red tape where it will still have to be fought over. States are rightly fighting over that already, via Domainfax:
The federal government is heading off attempts to inject more flexibility into the flagship National Energy Guarantee to adjust a 26 per cent cut to carbon emissions by 2030, insisting the target will be cemented in federal law.
…Fairfax Media understands some of the key parties to the discussions on the policy have canvassed a change that would allow a future federal energy minister to lift the target by regulation if the 2024 review recommended greater ambition to tackle climate change.
The approach could overcome the biggest barrier to any change to the target during the next decade – the challenge of persuading a difficult Senate, including a divided crossbench, to vote for deeper cuts to carbon emissions.
The explosive idea could fuel the divisions within the Coalition on emissions policy, with former prime minister Tony Abbott calling for a retreat on the 26 per cent target while other Liberals accept it as a settled cabinet decision under Mr Abbott’s own government three years ago.
All the NEG does is add inflexibility, complexity and costs, as well as strengthened oligopolies, coal subsidies and missed Paris targets.
We’re better off fighting the issue out in the open plus letting states do the heavy lifting on renewable targets and markets will do the rest. Nothing can stop the renewables plus storage revolution that’s coming:
But the NEG can slow it down.
Trash it.
