The Draft WA Strategic Energy Initiative is a betrayal of Western Australian householders and has no place in a modern energy economy, Greens (WA) MLC Robin Chapple said today.
“This is an incredibly disappointing draft plan from the Minister for Energy”, Mr. Chapple said, “There is no vision in this document for transforming the State into a sustainable, low-emissions energy economy.”
“In fact the booming renewable energy market is consistently sidelined with outdated arguments about expense and transmission difficulties. This is incredibly out of touch with the global reality of energy economics where all the evidence is saying; go for green energy now.”
“Most revealingly, the report shows that the WA government will allow 20% of energy generation to be sourced from renewable energy by 2020 but will make no effort to increase that proportion in the decade after that.”
“Mr. Collier and his Government have betrayed every single WA householder who have signed on to the REBS scheme, which has seen an over 3000% increase in customers since 2007, every enterprising renewable energy entrepreneur waiting to create green jobs, and every other resident of the State with a stake in our future energy market – that is, all of us.”
“There is simply no long-term future for the dirty energy the report champions – it will be unaffordable long before it runs out, especially at the current rate of LNG export.”
“The report harps on about carbon capture technology, which is completely unproven, about our potential uranium exports, which is completely irrelevant and even coal seam gas which is an incredibly polluting and carbon-intensive process, and frightening in its implications for our water supply.”
“Nowhere in this report is there a coherent vision for a sustainable, affordable energy future.”
Mr. Chapple said that the Greens maintained a consistent vision for an affordable low-emissions energy economy and would be moving to augment the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff in coming months to facilitate the expansion of household renewable energy.
For more information please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263 or 9486 8255
