‘I haven't left anger yet': NEG architect slams policy ‘anarchy’

The architect of the failed National Energy Guarantee has claimed Australia has sunk into policy "anarchy" as part of a fierce critique of the government's shift to focus on power prices instead of other issues such as reducing carbon emissions.

Kerry Schott, head of the Energy Security Board, was
highly critical of the breakdown of the NEG.

Energy Security Board chair Kerry Schott said she remained bitter over the dumping of the signature energy plan when Malcolm Turnbull was deposed as prime minister in late August.

Read the story from The Age  by Cole Latimer and Peter Hannam - “‘I haven't left anger yet': NEG architect slams policy ‘anarchy’."

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’.”

Architects finally are taking climate change seriously. Sort of

In our recent post American Institute of Architects takes a stand on climate change I ended up by quoting architect and writer Lance Hosey, and his survey that found “as many as a third of architects are skeptical about climate change.”

Lance tweeted me an update that he just published in Architectural record, a new survey which found that the situation has improved significantly, that now fully 93.6 percent of architects actually believe that human activity is changing the climate.

Given that architects design the buildings that are the single biggest source of greenhouse gases, that’s a good thing. Too bad that less than half of them actually know that. (Until recently, based on my analysis, I thought transportation was the biggest source in America, and I teach this stuff).

Read the TreeHugger story - “Architects finally are taking climate change seriously. Sort of.”

Richard Rogers wants 'everybody involved'

Richard Rogers.

Richard Rogers, an Italian-British architect noted for his modernist and functionalist designs in high-tech architecture, said:

“The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved”