It’s become increasingly apparent that Australia is open for business – the filthy coal business.
At an event in Texas, the Prime Minister referred to coal as gift rather than the environmental curse and danger to human health that it has proven to be.
“Australia should be an affordable energy superpower, using nature’s gifts to the benefit of our own people and the wider world,” he said; according to a report on Adelaide Now.
“For many decades at least coal will continue to fuel human progress as an affordable, dependable energy source for wealthy and developing countries alike.”
With all this glowing talk of coal and Australia’s Typhoid Mary role in distributing it, whatever happened to clean energy initiatives such as the $500 million promised to help Australians battling with power bills to install solar?
It turns out the Prime Minister may not have even known about that 2010 election promise being reaffirmed by Environment Minister Greg Hunt last November until after it occurred.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the re-announced half-billion-dollar solar-power policy occurred without the Prime Minister’s permission.
The Million Solar Roofs plus $50 million each for Solar Schools and Solar Towns was due to kick off during the 2014/15 financial year. However, out of the $600 million promised, only $2.1 million will materialise.
Minister Hunt is yet to comment on SMH’s revelations.
Regardless of the facts continually presented to the Government of the financial and environmental benefits of small scale renewable energy; clouds have increasingly gathered for solar since the Coalition came to power. In fact, it appears that Greg Hunt and one other minister may have been the last men standing to further Australia’s dream of a clean, renewable energy future at a government level.
Thankfully, many ordinary Australians are seeing through the pall of coal dust and understanding that those who will benefit from a reinvigorated love affair with the fossil fuel will not be them – and putting their money on solar panels instead. Solar is turning out to be one the best investments available; not just from a financial point of view, but also in terms of the legacy we leave future generations.
