Labor’s plan to burn more coal to lower increasing power rates has been slammed by the Greens.
While the east coast sweats through a frigid winter, at least a quarter of Australia’s coal-fired electricity generation is currently offline owing to planned and unforeseen disruptions.
With gas prices on the rise and energy bills on the rise, Resources Minister Madeleine King called on coal power plants to increase their output as quickly as possible on Tuesday.
However, Adam Bandt, the leader of the Green Party, believes that this is the wrong step and that the focus should instead be on renewable energy. He also warned against the government subsidizing coal-fired power.
‘Propping up these aging plants would be throwing good money after bad,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘No amount of patching up these dirty clunkers will fix the problem.’
Mr Bandt believes Australia should follow the lead of the Australian Capital Territory, which has been generating all of its electricity from renewable sources since 2020.
While the east coast braces for higher prices, power bills in the ACT are scheduled to drop from July 1, saving consumers $23 per year.
Because it relies on solar and wind power and is less sensitive to global price fluctuations, the ACT is now paying less than a fifth of the NSW market price for electricity.
‘The lesson from the ACT could not be clearer: go 100% renewables, break up with fossil fuels and reap the benefits of cheaper, cleaner, reliable energy,’ Mr Bandt said.
Labor claims that supplying 82 percent of electricity from cheaper renewable sources by 2030 will save households $275 per year by 2025 and $378 by 2030.
Ms King, on the other hand, stated that additional coal was required for the time being.
‘In the very short term, what we really need to do is to have the coal power stations come back online because that is the missing piece of the puzzle right now,’ she told ABC radio on Tuesday.
‘There’s been unplanned outages for many reasons, many beyond the control of those operators and I do accept that, but I hope they’re doing their best to make sure this power source comes online as well.’
It has been forced to acquire coal on the open market as costs rise as a result of the global crisis triggered by the Ukraine conflict, which has pushed energy prices even higher.
The Callide coal power station in Queensland has also been shut down due to an explosion, creating a perfect storm just as Australia’s east coast has been slammed by a brutal cold snap.
The maintenance work at the impacted power plants isn’t slated to be finished until July at the earliest, and Callide won’t be back until December, but Labor is demanding that it be done now.
On Wednesday, Energy Minister Chris Bowen will meet with his counterparts from the states and territories to explore ideas as the Albanese administration considers short- and long-term remedies to relieve price pressure.
It comes just five days after Mr Bowen announced the new administration will take’real action on climate change’ on stage with members of the Emergency Leaders For Climate Action.
Gas prices are under pressure globally as a result of nations’ rejection of Russia’s abundant gas following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Germany has prepared legislation to prohibit coal power plants from being decommissioned, instead mandating that they be kept on standby.
Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Czech Republic are also planning to burn more coal as a temporary measure to minimize their dependency on Russian gas, while the United Kingdom is exploring for more gas in the North Sea.
Due to scheduled and unscheduled maintenance concerns, AGL currently has three coal power units in NSW and Victoria that are either offline or operating at a reduced capacity.
The largest power station in NSW, Origin’s Eraring, has also been hampered by coal production cuts at a nearby conveyor belt-connected coalmine.
‘It is the coal companies themselves, and the operators of the power stations, that need to get these power stations back online.
‘It’s 30 per cent of the energy capacity taken out of the mix because of unforeseen circumstances in many respects.’
Ms King said ‘nothing is off the table’ when asked if the government would explore a statewide policy requiring producers to set aside 15% of their gas for export, as Western Australia does.
She refused to commit to the policy, claiming that introducing it was a “huge political struggle” for the Labor government, with many people sacrificing “a lot of political skin in that fight.”
Ted O’Brien, the opposition’s energy spokesman, said the Albanese administration needed to pull the ‘gas trigger,’ allowing exports to be diverted to domestic supply.
Mr Bowen, on the other hand, has maintained that it is a complicated process, and that taking action now would not have an impact until January.
He accused the Coalition for leaving “Australia ill-prepared” and “our energy markets ill-prepared” for the current gas and electricity supply difficulties.
He added: ‘The previous government didn’t do the work necessary to increase renewables or storage.
‘If we had more storage and renewables and better transmission, we would be much better placed to deal with the current challenges.
‘That is exactly what our powering Australia plan seeks to implement but it will take some time to implement.
‘As I have said, you don’t overturn nine years of dysfunction, denial and delay overnight. But action is necessary.’
Opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor, the former energy minister, rejected accusations he had failed to invest in renewables.
‘We’re committed to some important transmission projects… but we don’t need excessive investment because that puts upward pressure on prices,’ he told ABC News.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said cost of living relief would feature in the October budget to tackle the soaring fuel bills.
‘We’ve got a plan to get those power bills down over time because the absence of an energy policy for the best part of a decade is a key reason why inflation is going through the roof,’ he told Sky News.
However, he warned that extending the fuel excise cut, which has down the price of a litre of gasoline by 22 cents, would be difficult due to the expenditures involved.