Coalition’s ‘clean coal’ plan revealed to be an ‘idiotic’ fantasy

Treasurer Scott Morrison with a
piece of "clean coal".

It’s probably not surprising that Coalition ministers and MPs were cradling the lump of coal brought to Question Time on Thursday by Treasurer Scott Morrison as though it were a treasure from Aladdin’s Cave. After all, their own plan for cheap and clean coal is steeped in as much fantasy as that favourite childhood tale.

Over the past few months the Coalition has been promoting “clean coal” and supposedly modern coal plant technology as a solution for Australia’s power crisis (high prices and high emissions), all the while attacking renewables, and wind energy in particular.

It reached idiotic proportions on Thursday after Engie chose not to switch on its Pelican Point gas plant and supply customers, including many of its own, with power in the midst of a major heatwave (temperatures at 47.8°C in Port Augusta), forcing rolling blackouts that affected 90,000 customers.

The Coalition then chose to blame wind energy, and the theatre culminated in the supply of a lump of coal to parliament house, which, as the Guardian’s Katharine Murphy pointed out, illustrated little more than their own stupidity. “What idiocy is this?” she asked.

Read Giles Parkinson’s RenewEconomy story - “Coalition’s ‘clean coal’ plan revealed to be an ‘idiotic’ fantasy.”