The Gillard government has dumped an election promise to introduce rules to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.
Launching a long-awaited energy policy paper, Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the proposed emissions standards - which Prime Minister Julia Gillard said would mean an end to the building of ”dirty” coal power plants - had become redundant, given Australia was introducing a carbon price.
The announcement came at the launch of a draft energy white paper that estimates Australia will need $240 billion of investment in energy infrastructure by 2030 and suggested nuclear power could be a ”backstop” option if other clean-energy technologies do not become viable.
Labor went to the 2010 election proposing regulations that required new power plants to emit less than 0.86 tonnes of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour and be carbon-capture and storage ready - that they could have ”clean coal” technology attached if it became viable. Mr Ferguson said the commitment was made before a decision to introduce a carbon price.
”The debate has completely changed because we now have moved to a market mechanism,” he said.
The paper declares that the Gillard government ”unambiguously” does not support nuclear, but it could not be assumed a future government would have the same view. It says if new low-emissions technologies do not become commercial quickly enough to meet proposed emissions cuts, nuclear may become a competitive ”backstop” baseload option.
Mr Ferguson urged state governments to rationalise ”the dog’s breakfast” of rooftop solar incentive schemes - known as feed-in tariffs - following the introduction of the carbon price. Central to the white paper is a priority to reinvigorate energy market reform, including urging state governments to privatise energy infrastructure and deregulate pricing regimes.
Climate Institute chief executive John Connor called the decision to dump the emissions standard ”short-sighted.”
Energy Supply Association of Australia acting chief Clare Savage welcomed the focus on encouraging the states to deregulate retail prices.
The energy road map came as the owners of the Latrobe Valley based brown-coal fired Yallourn power station wrote down the generator’s value by $350 million as a result of Labor’s carbon price.
Yallourn - previously valued at $1.7 billion - has been put forward for the first stage of the scheme to pay to shut heavy-emitting power plants.
