Australian Greens' Additional Comments
The Greens believe that the Bill should be passed during the
current sitting fortnight but that it could be improved.
These additional comments respond only to the Committee's
report. Further detail about the Greens position on the Bill and general
criticism of the Government's lack of support for the renewable energy sector
will be included in my second reading speech.
1) Banked Renewable Energy Certificates
The Committee dismisses industry concerns about the level of
banked Renewable Energy Certificates and instead relies solely on the
Department's commissioned modelling (conducted by MMA) to form the conclusion
that banked RECs will not unduly crowd out investment in the near term. The
Greens believe that this is a risky conclusion, especially given the
Department's poor record in forecasting the industry's growth and REC prices.
It also demonstrates that the Government would not be overly concerned by
further delays in investment in renewables.
The Greens will endeavour to move an amendment to mitigate
this risk.
2) Overheating the SRES market
The Greens welcome the Committee's concern that the SRES
market may overheat if the cost of installing PV systems falls too low, but we are
disappointed that the committee had no specific recommendation as to how to
rectify this problem. Again, the Greens will move an amendment to address this
concern.
3) Emission intensive trade exposed industries
The Greens do not support the partial exemptions provided to
the emission intensive trade exposed industries because a) many other nations
have similar (often stronger) renewable energy support policies, yet virtually
none provide any exemptions to their EITE's and b) even with the cost of the
RET, Australian electricity prices will remain very competitive.
Senator Christine Milne
Navigation: Previous Page | Contents | Next Page