Our energy policy: stupidity, economic illiteracy, or sponsored obfuscation?

As we dissect the Finkel review’s failure to give serious credence to Australia’s commitment to the Paris agreement, what is yet again missing from the debate is a discussion of the economic and technological transition that is rapidly unfolding.

 Lessons from around the world are clear: successful
clean energy industries need domestic policy support. 

President Donald Trump attempts to revive failed rust belt industries in the states with hollow and economically ludicrous promises – promises which helped put him into the White House. New industries are growing that have already created many millions of jobs around the world and which will provide clean energy to power the 21st century.

This is not an “alternative fact”; it is the only game in town.

For the second straight year in a row the demand for coal has dropped. Renewable energy technologies are increasingly competitive with thermal electricity generation – without subsidies and without factoring in all the hidden costs of thermal power plants and their associated extractive industry requirements (think water pollution, emissions, coal ash, mercury).

Read Tim Buckley’s story on The Guardian - “Our energy policy: stupidity, economic illiteracy, or sponsored obfuscation?”