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RET: Labor may compromise if Coalition rejects Warburton report

The Guardian News|Oliver Milman |September 15, 2014
AustraliaTaxes & Subsidies

A negotiated position could mean scaling back to a “real” 20% target or pushing back the target for large-scale projects while leaving small-scale production, such as solar panels on house rooftops, in place. The clean energy sector has warned that any amendment to the RET would be disastrous for the industry.


Opposition hints at deal on renewable energy target but ‘job-decimating’ recommendations must first be renounced

Labor has given its clearest indication yet that it will negotiate over the renewable energy target, with opposition leader Bill Shorten calling for the government to first set aside a review calling for a radical winding back of the scheme.

The review, led by businessman Dick Warburton, found that the RET had successfully boosted jobs and investment but should still either be closed to new entrants or suspended until energy demand increased.

The government has yet to formally respond to the review but has called on Labor to compromise on its position that the RET should remain untouched. Labor, the Greens and the Palmer …

... more [truncated due to possible copyright]

Opposition hints at deal on renewable energy target but ‘job-decimating’ recommendations must first be renounced

Labor has given its clearest indication yet that it will negotiate over the renewable energy target, with opposition leader Bill Shorten calling for the government to first set aside a review calling for a radical winding back of the scheme.

The review, led by businessman Dick Warburton, found that the RET had successfully boosted jobs and investment but should still either be closed to new entrants or suspended until energy demand increased.

The government has yet to formally respond to the review but has called on Labor to compromise on its position that the RET should remain untouched. Labor, the Greens and the Palmer United party have all committed to the existing RET, which would mean any change to it would be blocked in the Senate.

The RET requires that 41,000 gigawatt hours of Australia’s energy is derived from renewable sources, such as solar and wind, by 2020. Owing to an overall drop in energy demand, this will probably equate to 26% of production by 2020, higher than the 20% originally intended.

Shorten said the Labor party could agree to some sort of deal but only if the Coalition renounced Warburton’s report.

“If the prime minister wants to work with Labor to fix the mess he has created, he first has to rule out the recommendations in the Warburton review,” Shorten told the Australian Financial Review.

“That’s job one for Tony Abbott. This is the prime minister’s report with the industry and job-decimating recommendations he wanted. It belongs in the bin.”

A negotiated position could mean scaling back to a “real” 20% target or pushing back the target for large-scale projects while leaving small-scale production, such as solar panels on house rooftops, in place.

The clean energy sector has warned that any amendment to the RET would be disastrous for the industry, risking $15bn in new investment and about 20,000 jobs. Work on large renewable projects has largely ground to a halt amid uncertainty over the RET’s future.

While the Coalition committed no change to the RET before the election, senior cabinet ministers, including Abbott, are understood to favour its closure. Others, including education minister Christopher Pyne, are said to want the RET retained as it is.

Last week the industry minister, Ian Macfarlane, said he was “alarmed” that Labor would not negotiate over the RET.

“If Bill Shorten and Mark Butler don’t reach a bipartisan position with us on the RET it’s the renewable energy industry that will suffer the consequences, not the Coalition,” he said. “It won’t be us who suffer, but it will destroy the renewable energy sector.

“So I’ll wait to hear from Labor. But neither option from Dick’s report is closing down the RET, to be clear.”

Abbott has previously blamed the RET for having a “significant impact” on power prices, although the Warburton report found this wasn’t the case. Modelling has shown that prices would actually fall in the long term because of renewable energy deployment.

Renewable energy advocates said Labor needed to hold firm over the existing RET.

“Labor does not need to back down from the existing target,” said Andrew Bray, a spokesman for the Australian Wind Alliance. “The government’s own modeling showed that keeping the current target delivered the best result for the consumer.

“Labor needs to be saying to Australians ‘we can have more renewable energy, to clean up our power supply and reduce our cost of living’. “

The Solar Council, which represents the solar industry, is currently running a vigorous pro-RET campaign targeting the 20 most marginal Coalition electorates in Australia.

The Climate Institute joined in the lobbying activity on Monday, launching a radio and online campaign called Stop the Dinosaurs, which calls for the RET to be retained.

“The RET is working – it has helped triple solar and wind energy since 2009, led to some $18bn in investment and grown jobs in the sector by more than 250%” said John Connor, chief executive of the Climate Institute.

“Slashing the RET would be an $8bn handout to keep our ageing, high polluting coal power stations on life support while Australia gets stranded with more pollution, lost investment and job opportunities in clean energy, and higher costs of addressing climate change.”;


Source:http://www.theguardian.com/en…

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