The federal energy minister is working to convince all his Coalition colleagues of the merits of a proposed clean energy target as several publicly raise concerns about its impact on coal.
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| The energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, says he wants coal-fired power to remain ‘an important part of the energy mix’. |
Josh Frydenberg is at pains to point out the recommendations from chief scientist Alan Finkel’s review of electricity market security would neither punish existing coal-fired power stations nor rule out new ones.
Coal backers within the government were already speaking out within 24 hours of the report’s release on Friday. But the minister said Finkel didn’t recommend any prohibitions on coal power, instead suggesting incentives to encourage sources with lower emissions.
Read The Guardian story - “Josh Frydenberg says he's trying to convince Coalition MPs to support clean energy target.”
(Mr Frydenberg has argued that the Turnbull-led Government is taking a “technology neutral” view in its attempt to resolve Australia’s energy crisis.That view, or course, allows for the use of both coal and gas, unquestionably playing into the hands of those companies eager to exploit the fracking technology and, further, allowing for the introduction new coal powered projects using so-called “clean coal”, which simply doesn’t exist.
So rather than being technology neutral, the government should be taking a “technology positive” position - that is, it should only be encouraging and investing in technology that it knows and science confirms, is a clean energy, being solar, wind, pumped hydro, wave or any technology that is carbon free.
“Technology neutral” is nothing more than “dog whistling” - Robert McLean)
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