The Victorian Labor government has acted on its pre-election pledge to save the state’s key energy efficiency scheme, which had been on the endangered policy list under the former Liberal government.
Energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio announced on Friday that the government would retain the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target (VEET) scheme, which helps participating households and businesses save money by better managing their energy use.
The scheme, which has a 2015 target of generating 5.4 million Victorian energy efficiency certificates, also requires energy retailers to provide incentives to Victorian households and businesses to take such measures as installing energy efficient appliances.
In May of this year, the Napthine government announced it would introduce legislation to dump the VEET – which is estimated to have saved participating households and businesses an average $109 a year on electricity bills.
The changes were to have cut short the program, running it for one more year only, and cut its target from 5.4 million tonnes of CO2 abatement to 2 million in 2015.
But in October, perhaps sensing the pre-election zeitgeist, Napthine and Co backed down on these plans, holding off on any revisions to the scheme until 2015.
D’Ambrosio says keeping the VEET would not only cut electricity bills and carbon emissions, but save thousands of jobs.
“The scheme supports more than 2000 jobs across Victoria and the Andrews Labor Government is protecting them,” she said.
The Victorian government, led by Daniel Andrews, says it will review the VEET scheme in the first half of 2015, with a view to strengthening it even further.
“The Government’s announcement yesterday has removed uncertainty that has been overhanging
Bruce Easton, the president of the Energy Efficiency Certificate Creators Association (EECCA) said the VEET announcements had removed uncertainty that had been hanging over the energy efficienecy industry in Victoria.
“The modelling put forward by the previous Napthine government to justify scrapping the VEET scheme was fatally flawed. It massively over-estimated the costs of the scheme and understated its benefits”, Easton said.
“We are thrilled to be working with a government which has an eye to the future”.
The Andrews government has also promised to wind back the state’s hugely restrictive wind farm laws and create a $20 million New Energy Jobs Fund, which will offer grants to firms and companies specialising in high-growth renewable sectors such as new energy technology.
