Tony Abbott’s soul ‘covered in coal dust’, says solar industry

The head of the Australian Solar Council has hailed the apparent victory of the Labor party in Queensland, saying it would also target the NSW Coalition government if it chose to side with vested interests rather than consumers.

ASC chief executive John Grimes said the solar industry had run a fierce political campaign in Queensland, and would do so federally, given the virulent anti-renewable stance of Coalition leaders.

Deposed Queensdland Premier Camblell Newman and his LNP government had backtracked on promises, branded solar households as “champagne and latte” sippers, and even proposed a $200 tax on solar households.

“This was a punishment tax on those who dared to use less energy from the grid,” Grimes told ABC Radio National’s Breakfast program on Thursday.

Prime Minister Abbott had also back-tracked on renewables, dumping his proposed “solar sunrise” policy of one million homes, and instead arguing how much he could cut the renewable energy target.coal-is-good

Little wonder, Grimes said, that both leaders were so unpopular, given more than 400,000 solar households in Queensland, and two million across the country.

“People have seen into the soul of our political leaders, and unfortunately they are covered in coal dust,” Grimes said. Both Newman and Abbott have said they “stand for coal.”

Grimes argued that the Queensland state electricity assets, which include networks and generators, would be better in state rather than private hands. And he was confident that Queensland would deliver on its promises, which included connecting one million houses to solar,

He said the government could look at the interests of consumers rather than that of the power sector, including encouraging more production in homes and business, battery storage, and peer to peer trading.

Grimes said it was clear that the energy sector was going through an “energy revolution”, but many utilities were locked into an out-dated model.

He was confident that the Labor government could deliver on its promises of connecting one million homes to solar, and to lift the share of renewable energy production in the state to 50 per cent by 2030.

“This is a battle between broken business model of electricity companies and new wave of technology being embraced by consumers. Any government that sides with the big power companies and against the community is doomed to failure. If the Labor government backtracks, we will call them out.”

Comments

19 responses to “Tony Abbott’s soul ‘covered in coal dust’, says solar industry”

  1. Chris Fraser Avatar
    Chris Fraser

    Indeed their souls are covered in coal dust … and coal dust is Black !

    1. Harry Verberne Avatar
      Harry Verberne

      Here in Victoria it is Brown!

      1. Chris Fraser Avatar
        Chris Fraser

        Yes, with friable consistency of mud.

  2. Alan Baird Avatar
    Alan Baird

    That last line of the article is most important. Labor MUST be called out WHEN (not if) they give in to big coal money. I always think the worst of them until proved wrong several times over as they have a lousy track record, big and brave in Opposition, but great exponents of “pre-emptive weakening” when shown money, power and media threats.

    1. Coaltopia Avatar
      Coaltopia

      Like US Democrats in coal states, they’ll protect coal – it behoves a strong leader to remind these members about their climate responsibilities [and the reef!] and hence why I advocate clear distinct “messaging” between thermal coal (especially new) and metallurgical coal.

      1. wideEyedPupil Avatar
        wideEyedPupil

        Did you know there’s a process for ‘Green’ Steal that doesn’t require coking coal? If it was the dominate form of coal production costs may be similar or less than existing methods.

    2. John P Avatar
      John P

      Spot on. Labor has a bad record on these matters and we will need to get stuck in to them as soon as they start backtracking!

      1. Pedro Avatar
        Pedro

        Labor politicians are split on RE and their RE policies have to be viewed with skepticism. They probably view the FF industry through the lens of union jobs.

        1. Raahul Kumar Avatar
          Raahul Kumar

          If the Greens hold the balance of power, and that does seem likely, I would expect Labour to follow through. So we need a substantial Greens presence to ensure the Labour Party does its job. Vote 1 Green, 2 Labour.

          1. Pedro Avatar
            Pedro

            More likely that a pile of random minor parties will hold the balance of power in the senate at the next election. I wouldn’t hold my breath. Labor if it is serious about RE will have to come out with a clear RE and climate policy and take that to the election to have any sort of mandate. Otherwise it will be more of the same uncertainty that we now have in the industry.

          2. Raahul Kumar Avatar
            Raahul Kumar

            Labour does at least have a clear policy on Renewable Energy, and the State Labour Parties are all pushing to have 50% solar across the board.

            If that happens, the Federal policy will be redundant.

          3. JFSmith99 Avatar
            JFSmith99

            Not redundant as such, because Federal Labor still supports the $17.6 billion/year in taxpayer-funded handouts to fossil fuel & mining interests just like the Coalition do, aside from obviously dragging the chain about action on global warming otherwise.

            And Federal investment is needed to speed up proliferation of renewable energy, successive governments having been more of a hindrance than a help in that area too.

            Would help if state Labor governments just stopped obstructing major renewable energy projects too, apart from being no help at all in closing down even the most disastrous of the old coal-fired power plants, like Hazelwood, Yallourn, Energy Brix and Playford, as we know.

          4. Raahul Kumar Avatar
            Raahul Kumar

            Coal unions. I had a recent conversation with a conservative friend where he justified social spending cuts, yet billions are handed out in corporate welfare like this.

            The problem is most Aussies are completely unaware of corporate welfare, which needs to be advertised widely. Yet no one has ever heard of it.

            Solar no longer needs government funding. The price of solar has crashed, the battleground is more about removing the subsidies for fossil fuels, and imposing a carbon tax.

            The QLD State Labour has promised many good things, if they deliver on them this will be a new Labour Party.

          5. JFSmith99 Avatar
            JFSmith99

            No chance of that Pedro. No chance those cranks will have that kind of say in the Senate after 2016. PUP’s dead and buried, and as far as I know, above-the-line preferencing is planned to be introduced before 2016, so Glenn Druery and his “preference whispering” operation will be put out of business.

            That and I’d expect we Greens will at least hold all our current Senate seats at that election, if not increase the numbers, and I could see an extra Senate seat happening in Victoria and maybe WA too.

          6. JFSmith99 Avatar
            JFSmith99

            A substantial Green presence in both houses, yeah.

            Fair chance the Greens could hold balance of power in the House of Reps as well as the Senate after 2016, I think.

            And after those goals are reached, we need to strive to gain more ground, as quickly as possible.

        2. JFSmith99 Avatar
          JFSmith99

          And campaign bribes, don’t forget those.

  3. David K Clarke Avatar
    David K Clarke

    South Australia’s Liberal opposition have also released anti-wind power policies in the past. The present leader has chosen not to answer my inquiries about whether he intends to change the policy. http://ramblingsdc.net/Australia/SaLibWF.html

  4. Rob G Avatar
    Rob G

    Australians have learnt from the lessons in QLD, VIC and at the federal level where exactly the LNP stand on renewables. They cannot be trusted. The dramatic VIC and QLD elections are proof of that, as is the demise of Abbott (now known as Mr 27%). Labor have a great opportunity to cement themselves as true progressives and show strong support for renewable growth. If they deliver this, they have a chance of cementing themselves in power for a good long while.

    1. JFSmith99 Avatar
      JFSmith99

      Be good if it happened, but the odds against that are astronomical. Figure I’ve got a better chance of being picked up by a spaceship outside my door and escaping the planet before it gets worse.

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