The “scientific delusion, the religion behind the climate crusade is crumbling” says Maurice Newman; Chair of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council. He also points to the Renewable Energy Target for affecting Australia’s ability to compete.
In an opinion piece on The Australian, Mr Newman says:
“It is the unprecedented cost of energy, driven by the Renewable Energy Target and carbon tax, which, at the margin, has destroyed our competitiveness.”
As we’ve so often pointed out, more recently in regard to Prime Minister Abbott and Senator Ron Boswell levelling the same accusations; the Australian Energy Market Commission estimates the impact of the RET on power bills to have been approximately only 3 per cent of electricity prices on average in 2012-13.
The major culprit behind electricity price rises in recent years is ballooning network costs; partly a result of gold plating electricity infrastructure. This has been very well established, yet continually conveniently ignored by some; that and the fact governments have benefited from power price increases.
While Mr Newman’s piece is littered with inaccuracies and could be disregarded as climate denialist and anti-renewables ramblings; this is a man with considerable clout given he has the ear of Prime Minister Abbott.
With regard to the increased beating of the anti-renewables drum from the highest levels of late, it would be fair to say that by repeating something enough; it may then be accepted as truth by the masses – a conditioning of the “market” using misinformation.
Whatever the intention of perpetuating myths, something is clear – 2014 could be a challenging year for the solar industry in Australia. With the Renewable Energy Target review occurring in what would appear to be such a toxic environment at a Federal government level, related existing subsidies for solar power systems could be under threat.
For households still tossing around the idea of installing solar panels, the best time to go solar may well be right now.
