Bam wrote on Nov 12^th, 2014 at 2:03pm:



Labor are not the friends of voters who require action on AGW via renewable energy. Labor are addicted to coal and coal donations to Labor.

For someone so switched on Bam, I am surprised by you ignorance.

Labor's position has always been guided by the need for Australia to have a sustainable renewable energy sector. Labor supports growing our renewable energy sector because it is important to Australia's energy future. A strong renewable energy sector will keep downward pressure on power prices, support new clean energy jobs through continued investment and contribute to reducing Australia's carbon emissions.

Labor will not stand by and watch billions of dollars of investment in the Australian renewable energy sector -- along with thousands of jobs -- go overseas because of deep cuts to the target.

Labor will continue to advocate for a strong and growing renewable energy sector for Australia -- we will not be party to a plan that kills jobs and investment, increases pollution and forces power prices to rise.

The high stakes political standoff over the renewable energy target will freeze new investment, cause the collapse of existing projects and within a few years trigger a “penalty” provision that would hike power bills by three times as much as the now-repealed carbon tax.

The renewable energy industry, Labor and the Greens are adamant these dire consequences are entirely the fault of the Abbott government, accusing the Coalition of breaking its election promise to keep the RET, abandoning bipartisanship over the policy and proposing drastic cuts to the target that would be even worse for the industry.

The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said there was no point continuing with the talks “because Tony Abbott is a climate change sceptic and election promise breaker” and “there is no point in leading people up the garden path” or having negotiations with people who didn’t want to negotiate.

Labor has now joined the Greens and the Palmer United party in staring down the government, refusing to make major changes to the target that requires Australia to install 41,000 gigawatt hours of renewable energy by 2020.

The environment minister, Greg Hunt, said the government was “surprised” by Labor’s decision and “our door remains open”. He said the 41,000 gigawatt hour target was “neither sustainable nor achievable.”

The opposition’s high stakes strategy relies on public pressure forcing the government to back down and publicly agree to keep the RET.

If it does not, uncertainty will mean investment stalls anyway, the price of renewable energy certificates will remain around half what existing projects had factored in to their financing and within one or two years there will be no certificates for electricity retailers to buy.

When that happens the RET legislation requires retailers to pay a penalty price of $92 per megawatt hour – an outcome that would cause an increase in the average power bill of about 30%. The carbon tax increased electricity bills by about 9%, and many households received compensation for its impact.