Culture

Tony Abbott Axes Funding To Wind And Solar Projects; Confirms Our Status As Global Embarrassment

EVERYONE'S GETTING COAL THIS CHRISTMAS.

by Meg Watson  13 July 2015

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With the hashtag #AntarcticVortex trending nationally, the entire country seems to have spent the whole weekend hating on the weather. If Instagram’s any indication, most focussed this intense hatred into a slight pout when sipping their delicious hot beverage; others endured the indignity of spending precious downtime with their friends and families indoors while whinging next to a cosy, roaring fire. Life’s tough.

It’s almost appropriate then that the government chose this weekend to continue their brave fight against the environment at large. On Saturday — after a week in which they introduced a sneaky and universally abhorred coal mine — Fairfax revealed they ordered the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to stop investing in wind power. Then on Sunday, it became clear that this new directive was broader than first thought; it also compelled the organisation to cut off funds to small-scale solar projects like household panels. 

Tone. Chill. No one asked you to do this.

The Problem

Of course, this is pretty fucked up news to give to a $10 billion government-run initiative whose sole purpose is to booster the renewable energy sector. As SMH point out, around one third of all CEFC investments involve small-scale solar and the sector is booming. With the promise of public rebates, more and more people (the number currently sits at around 1.3 million) are adopting rooftop solar panels and the corporation is still running at an impressive profit.

With this in mind, the move also seems to run counter to the Prime Minister’s ongoing pledge to reduce the cost of power for average Australians. Though there would be small savings in the short-term, solar panels are not only a more environmentally-friendly power source, but one which protects people from rising energy prices. Solar energy has been consistently heralded as one of the best long-term energy options for both the environment and consumers, and the government play a big part in this. With such expensive start-up costs, it’s been widely documented that public policy and federal support are consistently the main driving factors in the sector’s initial success all around the world.

Now, the Australian Solar Council is warning that cutting off investment would limit people’s access to all this. “By prohibiting the CEFC from investing in solar projects, the Abbott government is stopping the most vulnerable from slashing their power bills,” said Chief Executive John Grimes in a media release yesterday. “This is about punishing solar families and businesses who stood up to [Tony Abbott] during the review of the Renewable Energy Target. Now he is using any means available to him to get even.”

This skepticism has been shared by those in the other major parties too. Shadow Environment Minister Mark Butler was one of the first to speak out against the move, suggesting the government were out to dismantle the CEFC — and its related renewable projects — completely.

The Greens have hit a little harder on this point, claiming it also works out pretty nicely considering all the ties Tony “coal is good for humanity” Abbott and his crew have to the mining industry.

In an interview with Radio National yesterday morning, Environment Minister Greg Hunt defended himself against these accusations claiming the directive to the CEFC was instead supposed to benefit other renewable sectors, like large-scale solar, tidal, and geothermal energy. The PM backed him up while speaking to reporters in Darwin, albeit in a much more confusing way.

“It is our policy to abolish the CEFC,” Abbott said, confirming Mark Butler’s accusation. “We think that if the projects stack up economically, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be supported in the usual way. This is a government which supports renewables … but while the CEFC exists, what we believe it should be doing is investing in new and emerging technologies, certainly not existing wind farms.”

But, it’s hard to imagine what wind and solar are if not new and emerging. Though still small, both sectors are growing exponentially to catch up to the standards set by other countries, and the government have already openly attributed the success of household solar panels to their own programs.

The withdrawal of that support makes the future of our renewable energy sector look pretty uncertain, but it also sends a weird message. At the moment, both wind and solar make up a combined 6 percent of our total energy generation, and if that’s the best we can ever do, we can definitely expect another public shaming about our commitments to combat climate change.

Speaking Of Total Humiliation

Renewable energy has been making headlines elsewhere in the world this week, too.

Last Tuesday, the US announced a huge new effort to champion solar energy among low and middle-income families, to much acclaim. In an effort to triple solar use by 2020, the administration are upping the amount of systems installed in government housing and starting a nation-wide program that helps renters get on board too. With the help of charities and investors they’ve also secured $520 million to start working on community solar farms and small local projects. This is in addition to an initiative announced earlier in the year, that will see the sector boosted with 75,000 extra jobs in the next decade.

In announcing all this, Democrat representative Elijah Cummings actually expressed his excitement at the fact this investment in solar energy would lower his constituents’ utility bills, almost directly mimicking the thoughts of our PM — but for exactly the opposite cause. “The difference in a monthly bill of $10 or $15 means a lot to the people who live on my block,” he told The New York Times.

So, you know. Our future isn’t looking all that bright.