The Morrison Government has adopted a suite of pro-coal, anti-solar policies including:
- A new solar tax that penalises Australian families to export their solar power to the energy grid;
- A $3.2 billion “coal keeper” subsidy that pays unprofitable, ageing and polluting coal-fired stations to keep operating;
- A new tax on solar farms (named the Congestion Management Model); and
- Legislative changes to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Act that force the national renewable energy agency to fund fossil fuel projects, and which may be illegal.
Chief executive of the Smart Energy Council (SEC), John Grimes, said: “These are the worst possible policies for the biggest challenge of our times.
“The world is literally burning and by expanding fossil fuels at this time the Morrison Government is fuelling the fire.
“The latest United Nations climate report provides the starkest warning yet that we are in a code red for humanity. We must stop funding coal projects and, instead, dramatically increase support for solar yet the Morrison Government is heading in the exact opposite direction.
“The Morrison Government has no climate policy, no electric vehicle policy and the same weak emissions reduction target that former prime minister Tony Abbott came up with back in 2015.”
“The Smart Energy Council is calling on state and territory governments to reject each and every one of these proposals at the energy ministers’ meeting on 20 August.”
“State and territory energy ministers should be urging federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor to go back to the drawing board and come up with an energy and climate change plan fit for the 21st Century, ahead of the critical international climate talks in November.”
The Smart Energy Council – an independent peak body for Australia’s solar, energy storage and smart energy management industry – has written to all state and territory energy ministers, outlining this call to action.
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