We pay as the world weans itself off our coal

Herald Sun
Thursday 10/9/2009 Page: 57

COAL and gas burning electricity generators are ripping customers off, the energy regulator says. And that's not all:

• Electricity and gas generators, transmitters and distributors definitely don't have to use energy more efficiently until 2013.
• Wealthy Chinese electricity corporation CLP Group tells its head of Australian coal-fired power plants, Richard Mclndoe of TRUEnergy, to withdraw investment in Victoria's Solar Systems, a developer of cutting edge solar energy
• Solar Systems is reported to be in administration and 150 jobs on the line.
• THE Clean Energy Council, whose inaugural chairman was Mr Mclndoe, has no idea how many renewable energy sector jobs have been lost in Australia over the past year.
• US Company FirstSolar will build the world's largest solar energy station in China - 2 GWs, thanks to strong fee d-in-tariff incentives.
• Nuclear reactor builder Hitachi and Japan Wind Development will develop batteries to store wind generated power.
• Smart grid technology to be rolled out next year in Japan so transmission and distribution networks can incorporate solar energy generation capacity of about 28 GWs.

There is a theme running through these announcements made this week and it is this: Nations that rely on Australian coal exports are moving away from burning fossil fuels and turbo charging their development of renewable energy. Their plan is that one day they will not need Australian coal. When that day happens, the billions of taxpayer dollars spent on extra infrastructure for doubling our coal exports will have been wasted.

Here in Australia, we are told that we have an obligation to sell our coal to countries such as China because it will improve the living standards of the Chinese. We are told that our economy cannot afford to stop selling coal to Japan. Well, here is the rub. Those economies are not counting on our coal as a long-term provider of energy. They are moving fast towards a renewable energy future.

Back here, our politicians tell us they support renewable energy, but they don't mean it. What they are really doing is pandering to those that dig up, export or burn fossil fuels. Providing them with billions of dollars of exemptions from the carbon pollution reduction scheme, the Renewable Energy Target and yesterday from the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Act, despite the efforts of Greens Senator Christine Milne.

And now, to add insult to injury, the Australian Energy Regulator's Ed Willett revealed yesterday that: "With customers already facing increased prices it is particularly concerning, that generators are pushing up wholesale prices by using their market power and further increasing the cost to consumers."

Go figure.