The Morrison government is walking a barbed-wire fence when it comes to climate policy. On the one hand, the government is smarting from sustained, opportunistic left-media attacks in the wake of this summer’s bushfire disaster. On the other, the Coalition’s voting base are unequivocally opposed to sacrificing economic growth on the altar of Gaia. The government risks losing its stunning gains in Queensland and West Australia if voters there think that they are caving to the green-left agenda.
Morrison’s approach so far has been to tout ‘commonsense’ climate policies ahead of tokenistic – and ruinously expensive – ‘action’ like climate targets. More importantly, the government is putting the kybosh on renewable subsidies which have done little but enrich the bourgeoisie at the expense of blue-collar taxpayers.
Research programs into wind and solar could be dumped by the Federal Government in favour of emerging technologies in hydrogen, lithium and reducing or storing greenhouse emissions from major industries, the Energy Minister says.
Angus Taylor flagged the changes during a speech at a Sydney business forum[…]”The Technology Investment Roadmap is the cornerstone of our long-term emissions reduction strategy,” he said.
“It will provide guidance to the public and the private sector on what future energy and emissions reduction technologies the Government will prioritise.”
This is the third horn of the trilemma facing the government: getting grasping, crony businesses to shut their yaps. Business loves greenwashing schemes which line their pockets while they get to wave their little green flags. When business groups demand ‘certainty’, what they’re really asking, it seems, is just how much taxpayers’ money they’re going to get their claws on.
Besides, governments just have a demonstrably lousy track record on investments, especially renewables.
Mr Taylor said value-for-money investments would be prioritised, with private sector uptake a critical component.
“For every dollar invested I want to see four or five dollars from the private sector following over the course of our investments.”
He said the roadmap set goals that would assess the cost for new technology and whether it would be commercially viable.
“The goal for each technology is to approach economic parity or better,” he said.
“Which means the shift to lower emissions is zero cost or low cost.”
One arm of the government’s technology-driven approach is reducing emissions from agriculture – in other words, figuring out how to stop cows farting so much.
The CSIRO has focused on new supplements to be fed to sheep and cattle with the aim of reducing methane-producing bacteria in the animal’s rumen.
Some have been shown to provide a 60 to 80 per cent reduction in methane, but more research is needed[…]”The challenge with supplements is how you provide them to the grazing animal — more research is being done on delivery.
Of course, the chancers, spivs and cronies are terrified at the prospect of losing their taxpayer-funded golden goose.
The Climate Council is led by none other than Tim Flannery, formerly heavily invested in a geothermal company which trousered tens of millions in government money without ever feeding a watt of energy into the grid.
The Climate Council criticised Mr Taylor’s speech as a “roadmap to nowhere”, saying the Government’s priority was prolonging the role of fossil fuels in the energy market.
“Carbon capture and storage is incredibly expensive,” spokesman Greg Bourne said.
“Hydrogen produced using renewables is a good idea, but the Government has hinted it will use fossil fuels to make hydrogen.”
abc.net.au/news/rural/2020-02-28/shake-up-of-energy-policy-flagged-dumping-solar-wind-investment/
Now apply that same logic to your precious electric cars.
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