Solar industry backs Labor's RET negotiation withdraw. But the Australian Solar Council warns if the government
doesn't change its position on the renewable energy target, it will change the
government.
Labor has quit its negotiations with the Abbott government
about Australia's renewable energy target saying there is "no prospect of
reaching an agreement".
In an escalation of the high stakes clash over Australia's
energy future, the opposition's environment spokesman, Mark Butler, has written
to Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane to end discussions that were aimed at
restoring bipartisan support for the renewable energy policy.
In a letter to Mr Macfarlane on Tuesday, Mr Butler said that
the government's plan to dramatically scale back the target had not budged
throughout weeks of negotiations.
He said Labor would not "stand by and watch"
billions of dollars in investment in Australia's renewable energy sector head
overseas because of deep cuts to the target.
Mr Butler wrote that while Labor was committed to restoring
bipartisan consensus, it "will not support certainty if that means
certainty of destroying the renewable energy sector".
"Considering the Government's fundamental position
remains a 40 per cent cut to the RET, I do not see there being any value in
continuing discussions at this point in time," the letter says.
The parties had been in talks since Mr Macfarlane confirmed
three weeks ago the government wanted to wind back the target to a so-called
"real 20 per cent".
That would be done by reducing the agreed green energy
target of 41,000 gigawatt hours of baseline power by 2020 to about 26,000
gigawatt hours.
It is understood Labor had been seeking to negotiate an
agreement that would set the target in the mid-to-high thirties as a compromise
to try to restore investment certainty for the clean energy industry.
The $20 billion alternative energy sector has been plunged into
uncertainty since the government launched a review of the target, headed by
businessman and climate sceptic Dick Warburton.
Mr Butler acknowledged on Tuesday that walking away from
negotiations would not return certainty to an industry that was relying on
bipartisan support for Australia's target to attract continued investment.
But he said the gap between the government and Labor on
clean energy policy was simply too great for the parties to reach agreement.
"Labor held a number of talks with Abbott government
ministers to explore any options we could find to get this policy back on the
rails and restore investor confidence," Mr Butler told Fairfax Media.
"But it is clear from the discussions that the Abbott
government remains committed to making deep cuts to the renewable energy target
that will be enormously damaging to the industry.
"On that basis Labor has reached the view that there's
no value in continuing these discussions because there is no prospect of
reaching an agreement."
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