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The Coalition again has renewable
energy in its sights. |
The Coalition attacks against renewable energy in the
last few weeks have reached their highest peak since the early days of
the Abbott government, when the former prime minister hired a climate denying
corporate leader to “review” the renewable energy target and try to have it
scrapped.
It managed “only” to reduce the target by around a third,
but the uncertainty it created still succeeded in bringing the industry to a
halt: so much so that since Abbott’s election in September 2013, only one
large-scale project has escaped the snare – the 175MW White Rock wind farm that
is being built by the deep-pocketed Chinese turbine manufacturer Goldwind.
All other projects that have been, or are being built, with
finance or grants from institutions that the Coalition has spent much of the
past three years trying to dismantle, such as the Australian Renewable Energy
Agency, or thanks to state-and territory-based targets (such as the ACT’s) that
the federal government is now trying to destroy.
The new campaign against state-based renewable energy
targets – and the deployment of its most potent weapon, policy uncertainty –
has reached a new intensity since the blackout in South Australia and the
release of an independent report into Queensland’s 50 per cent renewable energy
target for 2030.
