Taxpayers can’t afford to subsidise renewable energy.
Like me, Queensland Senator Matt Canavan sat down and watched Michael Moore’s Planet of the Humans this week.
In a previous post, I said the film further demonstrates the dismal failure of expensive renewable energy to reduce Carbon Dioxide and replace the need for fossil fuel or nuclear energy. This is a view Canavan shares.
By the way, Planet of the Humans has now racked up more than 5 million views on YouTube.
Canavan points out in this week's Spectator Australia that the federal government’s Renewable Energy Target costs the taxpayer $2 billion dollars a year plus the impact of renewables in the electricity grid hikes the price, creating a double whammy.
Given that recovering from the devastation Wuhan virus has inflicted on our economy, Canavan says we can no longer afford the luxury of taxpayer subsidies for wind and solar schemes that can’t replace the need for fossil fuel-fired baseload power.
This has been obvious for years but our politics has been moribund by climate alarmism, obscuring our ability to look rationally at renewables.
Moore's film and coronavirus has changed this.
With politicians under pressure to show solidarity with the millions of Australians turfed out of their jobs and taking a hit to their personal finances thanks to China's recklessness, Canavan says he’ll take a pay cut if the RET does too.
“I propose that we seek to reduce the number of RET certificates over the next 10 years by 20 per cent. That will reduce the costs of the RET by a fifth and bring down electricity prices.
“I am aware of proposals for politicians to take a 20 per cent pay cut. I would happily take that cut too. So if there is a bill for the pay of politicians to be cut I will move an amendment to impose a similar cut on the investors of renewable energy too.”
All this of course begs the question as to why the scheme is not scrapped altogether based on the evidence of its ineffectiveness.
That would yield even bigger reductions in electricity prices and allow our nation the chance to rebuild its energy security based on fuels that are abundant, reliable and affordable.
If wind and solar can compete with coal and gas to provide the energy Australians need for jobs and comfortable houses, then let them do it without the taxpayer’s dime.
It’s worth reading the rest of Senator Canavan’s article in this week’s Spectator Australia.