Defining clean to include dirty

Federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg yesterday revealed that the government is considering changing the mandate of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to allow it to invest in coal-fired power generation.

Making dirty clean with the stroke of a pen.

 

The CEFC’s purpose is to promote renewable and clean energy. Needless to say, coal is neither renewable nor clean. In an ordinary cabinet of a well-functioning government, an environment minister would step in at this point to strenuously oppose such a proposal on the grounds of, well, everything.In the Turnbull government, Frydenberg is also the environment minister. 

The “new” coal-power stations that he and his colleagues tout are marginally (around a quarter) less dirty than the dirtiest old ones, still dirtier than gas and significantly more emissions-heavy than the current CEFC investment guidelines allow. In other words, the government proposes to redefine clean to include dirty. 

Read The Monthly story - “Defining clean to include dirty.”