The Examiner, Page: 14
Monday, 15 May 2006
t seems ironic that on one hand the Federal Government is pushing Australians to embrace new alternatives to petrol to ease the burden of rising fuel prices, yet when it comes to other energy areas it seems to stick its head in the sand. Acting Prime Minister Mark Vaile has talked up biofuels as a viable and cheaper alternative to petrol, with ethanol the most likely source of the fuels. He says consumers should be demanding it because of benefits in price, health and the environment. Fair enough.
Yet this is the same Federal Government that has been less enthusiastic in other aspects of renewable energy, refusing to extend its Mandatory Renewable Energy targets, which would underwrite the viability of several clean-energy projects. Tasmania's wind farm developments are particularly reliant on such support and the Heemskirk wind farm proposed has been shelved. The Federal Government has argued that subsidising renewable energy developments in this way would see costs passed on to consumers in a variety of ways. Again, it's a short-sighted argument.
Plenty of private and taxpayer money is being invested in schemes to try to reduce the impact of existing greenhouse polluters. We pay for it somewhere down the line. As attempts are being made to at least face up to the impact of climate change - even if little seems to actually be achieved - a country like Australian should be doing its utmost to encourage clean energy development. The Government has boasted of our sound financial position, and the recent Federal Budget confirmed it.
Rather than sticking our head in the sand and merely finding ways of making something like coal power a bit cleaner, we should be doing our utmost to encourage energy generation that is clean from the start.
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