3 years ago
22 ENERGY POLICIES IN 8 YEARS
CHRIS BOWEN MP
The Government’s chaos and division on energy has reached new heights, with Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor unable to bring their own bill to a vote in the House.
In extraordinary scenes last night, the Government has interrupted debate on its own Clean Energy Finance Corporation legislation and pulled the bill from further consideration.
The humiliating backdown follows Barnaby Joyce’s move to allow the CEFC to fund coal projects.
Of course – not long after – Conspiracy Craig has voiced his interest in Joyce’s amendment.
This now means the Government is divided over exactly how many fossil fuel technologies the Clean Energy Finance Corporation should support – just gas, as proposed by Taylor, or gas and coal.
It seems there’s only two parts of the bill the Government can agree on:
In extraordinary scenes last night, the Government has interrupted debate on its own Clean Energy Finance Corporation legislation and pulled the bill from further consideration.
The humiliating backdown follows Barnaby Joyce’s move to allow the CEFC to fund coal projects.
Of course – not long after – Conspiracy Craig has voiced his interest in Joyce’s amendment.
This now means the Government is divided over exactly how many fossil fuel technologies the Clean Energy Finance Corporation should support – just gas, as proposed by Taylor, or gas and coal.
It seems there’s only two parts of the bill the Government can agree on:
- giving unprecedented powers to the Minister to undermine the independence of our clean energy fund
- allowing the taxpayer funded ‘world leading’ green bank to invest in projects that aren’t economically viable.
This is the same Minister who has consistently campaigned against wind energy, and has said in the Parliament he thinks the so-called ‘climate religion’ has ‘little basis on fact’.
And it is despite the fact the fund’s prudent economic settings have returned $700 million to the taxpayer and leveraged $27 billion in private investment.
The chaos would be funny if it didn’t mean higher prices and lower reliability for households and businesses, and jeopardy for thousands of jobs.
The Government claims its CEFC bill is important in stabilising the grid, and with sensible amendments from Labor this could be true.
But the fact this bill has been languishing in the parliament for over six months proves it was never about grid stability, but was about giving the embattled Minister Taylor unprecedented power to direct clean energy funds into fossil fuels.
The Government announced the Grid Reliability Fund 15 months ago. Now, let alone deliver reliable cheap energy for Australians, the Government can’t deliver a debate on the fund in the Coalition controlled House of Representatives.
And it is despite the fact the fund’s prudent economic settings have returned $700 million to the taxpayer and leveraged $27 billion in private investment.
The chaos would be funny if it didn’t mean higher prices and lower reliability for households and businesses, and jeopardy for thousands of jobs.
The Government claims its CEFC bill is important in stabilising the grid, and with sensible amendments from Labor this could be true.
But the fact this bill has been languishing in the parliament for over six months proves it was never about grid stability, but was about giving the embattled Minister Taylor unprecedented power to direct clean energy funds into fossil fuels.
The Government announced the Grid Reliability Fund 15 months ago. Now, let alone deliver reliable cheap energy for Australians, the Government can’t deliver a debate on the fund in the Coalition controlled House of Representatives.