Coalition’s last minute energy policy continues to unravel before its eyes

The federal Coalition’s energy policy moves continue to unravel before its eyes, with the latest blow coming from legal opinion that suggests that the government would need to get funding for any new fossil fuel generation through parliament if it is to have any legal force.

Minister for Energy, Angus Taylor (left), and Prime
Minister Scott Morrison talk at a press conference.

The opinion comes just days after the federal Coalition decided to pull its so-called “big stick” legislation after discovering that Labor and the independents would support an amendment by The Greens that would ban the government from funding new coal investments.

The “big stick” legislation is a lead-footed attempt by the government to try and “control” the energy market, drawing on some aspects of an ACCC report into market gaming and manipulation, but introducing others – such as a threat to force companies to sell assets – that the ACCC, and just about everyone else, says is a really bad idea.

Read the RenewEconomy story by Giles Parkinson - “Coalition’s last minute energy policy continues to unravel before its eyes.”

ESB modelling confirms NEG designed to shut door on renewables

The latest modelling for the federal Coalition’s proposed National Energy Guarantee confirms the new policy would effectively shut the door on new renewable investment at the national level in the next decade.

The modelling – included in a new 50-page document prepared by the Energy Security Board for the COAG energy ministers meeting on Friday – suggests that the NEG is barely better than doing nothing.

In its low demand scenario, doing nothing would meet the government’s emissions targets just as effectively as the NEG, the modelling shows. Adopting the NEG would add an extra 1 percent of renewable capacity over doing nothing over a whole decade.

“Both BAU and the Guarantee achieve the emissions reduction target under the ‘low demand’ scenario,” it says. And that would mean no need for any new wind or solar.

In its most optimistic scenario (see table below), the NEG would add just 4 percent of additional renewable capacity over business as usual – yet even this modelling appears to underestimate the uptake of rooftop solar. So the incentive for new large-scale investment is largely illusory.

Read the story by Giles Parkinson on RenewEconomy - “ESB modelling confirms NEG designed to shut door on renewables,”