Energy policy architect plays down carbon price fears as Malcolm Turnbull calls for end to ‘climate wars’

An architect of the government's new energy policy has played down suggestions the scheme represents a carbon price.

And the lobby group representing electricity wholesalers and retailers, the Australian Energy Council, has provided cautious approval for the Turnbull government's National Energy Guarantee, while warning significant design work was still required and that a carbon price is an inevitable outcome of the scheme.

The council, which represents wholesalers and retailers such as AGL, Energy Australia and Origin Energy, said the proposal was "a considered attempt to deal with the issues of reliability and emissions reduction at least cost”.

On Thursday, Energy Security Board member John Pierce declared that "we are not pricing carbon. What we are pricing is reliability, what we are pricing is the ability for the mechanism to be dispatched.”

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age by James Massola and Peter Hannam - “Energy policy architect plays down carbon price fears as Malcolm Turnbull calls for end to ‘climate wars’.”