The Board of the Clean Energy Council (CEC) has unanimously elected AGL Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Michael Fraser as the new Chairman of the organisation – but not everyone is happy.
The decision was made following the recent resignation of Rob Grant, who is currently immersed in major renewable energy projects in South America. Mr Grant was chairman of the CEC for three years.
“The appointment of Michael Fraser to the chair and Roy Adair to the deputy chair of the CEC reflects the commitment of these major energy companies to the development of this industry,” states a CEC release.
According to the AGL web site, Mr. Fraser has 25 years’ energy industry experience; prior to which his background was in taxation; having worked for a chartered accounting firm and the Australian Taxation Office.
The CEC is obviously happy with its decision, but not everyone is. While Mr. Fraser has been involved with many of AGL’s renewables forays, his dislike of feed in tariffs is on the public record, as is his support for Coal Seam Gas (CSG) projects; two very sensitive energy related issues.
Soon after the CEC announcement, a post appeared on the GetUp! Campaign Suggestion forum, stating solar power companies are “being driven out of business by government indecision and big energy players”, with a reference to the CEC’s appointment of Mr. Fraser and his support of CSG.
CSG has increasingly been put under the spotlight due to various land access and potential environmental issues, including fears of water supplies becoming contaminated through extraction methods such as fracking.
It would also appear the benefits of natural gas in terms of climate change may be somewhat overly-optimistic. A recent study emerging from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the USA concludes that while burning of natural gas generates far less carbon dioxide than coal, a reliance on it would fail to significantly slow down climate change – and could in fact increase global temperatures in the short to medium term due to other properties of gas when compared with coal.
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