Minority
Report from the Australian Greens
The
Greens support the Renewable Energy Target legislation and believe there was no
need for this Senate Inquiry, the primary objective of which was to buy time for
the Coalition who found themselves wedged by Government's cynical move to link
the compensation provisions of the Renewable Energy Target Bill to the Carbon
Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill.
Further,
the Greens believe that no substantive information was presented to the
Committee that was not already well understood when the Rudd Government came to
power 21 months ago. As this Bill is a simple amendment to an existing Act
that is supported by the Coalition, there can be no justification for the long
delay in its introduction. Along with the sudden scrapping of schemes such as
the Solar Homes and Communities Program and the Renewable Remote Power
Generation Program, this delay is evidence of the contempt with which the
renewable energy sector is regarded by both the Rudd Government and the
Coalition. Both prioritised the interests of the large polluters and their
exemptions over the renewable energy industry. The contrast with the Government
and the Coalition obsequience to the fossil fuel sector could not be starker.
The
Greens position with regard to the Committee's recommendations are as follows:
Recommendation 1
Not
supported. The evidence presented to the committee confirms that the long-term
projection of electricity generation is difficult, so one review in the year
2014 is inadequate. The Greens believe it would be better to have the Renewable
Energy Target expressed as a percentage target, with an annual projection of
how such targets translate into a GWh target, for each year of the scheme.
Recommendation 2
Supported.
The Greens recommend in addition that a review of the adequacy of the target
should be triggered if the REC price falls below a set threshold. An
appropriate threshold would be if the REC price falls below $40 for a period
exceeding six months.
Recommendation 3
Not
supported. The Greens believe that to avoid further boom and bust cycles and
consistent with most schemes internationally, the banking of RECs should be
limited to about four years. Unlimited banking acts as a disincentive to later
investors.
Recommendation 4
The
Greens support the passage of the Bill but will seek to amend the Bill to, inter
alia:
-
Increase
Renewable Energy Target to 30% by 2020.
-
Express
the target in percentage terms rather than as a set GWh target.
-
Replace
the multiplier for small generators with a gross national feed-in tariff law
which is additional to the RET, to support emerging technologies. If this is unsupported
then:
-
In relation to
the multiplier, remove the 1.5kW cap for PV systems and increase the cap to
10kW for other technology types such as small wind and hydro.
-
Add each years
'phantom RECs' to the following year's
target.
-
Exclude
solar hot water, heat pumps and wood waste from native vegetation from the
scheme.
-
Limit
banking of RECs to four years.
-
Delete
the provisions to compensate the Emission Intensive Trade Exposed industries.
-
Review
the operation of the scheme and the adequacy of the target every two years or
if the REC price drops below a threshold $40 for a period of six months.
Further,
the Greens note that the plight of off-grid renewable generators is not
discussed by the Committee Report. Evidence presented to the Committee
indicated that the RET would only provide 20 per cent of the support that had
been provided by the recently axed Renewable Remote Power Generation Programme.
The Greens amendment to remove the Bills provision which restricts the
multiplier to the first 1.5 KW for PV systems is particularly important to
correct this mistake.
Finally,
we note that paragraph 4.28 of the Committee Report misrepresents the position
of the Clean Energy Council. The CEC supports the RET, but they also support a gross
feed-in tariff for small scale systems.
Senator
Christine Milne
Australian
Greens Spokesperson on Climate Change and Energy
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