Coal could get clean-energy subsidy under new Turnbull focus

Malcolm Turnbull has flagged a policy
 switch that is sure to provoke anger
 from anti-coal environmentalists.

Malcolm Turnbull has opened the possibility of using clean-energy subsidies to build new-generation, coal-fired power stations as he branded Labor's heavy focus on renewables "mindless", and a recipe for more expensive, less reliable electricity.

Flagging a policy switch sure to provoke anger from anti-coal environmentalists, but set to please fossil-fuel enthusiasts in the Coalition partyroom, Mr Turnbull said technological advances had made new coal-fired generators viable as a potential foundation in the overall energy mix.

Read Mark Kenny’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Coal could get clean-energy subsidy under new Turnbull focus.”

(Clean coal is a misnomer. However it is framed, coal is simply a dirty form of energy and just this morning on ABC TV, the Environment Minister, Josh Frydenburg, argued that clean coal combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS) would result in a reliable power source for Australia, bringing a reduction of some ninety percent in carbon dioxide emissions – two things, coal is a still a dirty form of energy and the idea that it can be made “clean” is, at base, a lie. CCS has not been scaled-up to a point anywhere near a level to where it would be useful, in any sense – CCS is not tried and tested and is a technology that lags far being the well understood and immediately applicable wind and solar energy sources. The Prime and Environment Ministers are doing nought but misleading the Australian public – Robert McLean)