A part of Hornsdale Wind Farm in SA's Mid North
At 315MW Hornsdale Wind Farm was one of the biggest in SA in 2020.
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A part of Hornsdale Wind Farm in SA's Mid North
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At 315MW Hornsdale Wind Farm was one of the biggest in SA in 2020. |
IntroductionI started a page on the Liberal's war on renewable energy on 2011/12/23 following copious published evidence for their corrupt support for the fossil fuel industries and dishonest denigration of any form of renewable energy.I've watched with great interest as the South Australian Liberal Marshall government changed from rubbishing renewable energy while in opposition to championing it in government, but what moved me to start this page was the Western Australian Liberal opposition under Zak Kirkup proposing shutting down their coal-fired power stations by 2025! if they were to win the election on 2021/03/13. I first read this in WAtoday, but couldn't quite believe it until I had read much the same thing in the ABC and The West Australian.
What a change from 2007 when the Young Liberals, who you might expect to be more progressive than their older compatriots, passed a motion calling on the Commonwealth "not to take any drastic action to address alleged man-made global warming until there is more conclusive scientific evidence of its existence".
New Labor?While the 'new Liberals' are embracing renewable energy around Australia, the federal Labor Party has to some extent gone cold on climate change action following their surprise defeat in the election of 2019/05/18 and in Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan has predicted disaster should the Liberals win the coming election and shut down the coal-fired power stations.
The South Australian LiberalsFor the great majority of my life I have lived in South Australia, much of that time in the Mid North region, which happened to be the centre of more wind farm development in the nation up to about 2017. Hence I have taken a strong interest in the development of wind power in particular.In 2013 David Ridgway was the leader of the SA Liberals in the Legislative Council. Mr Ridgway was an outspoken and quite dishonest opponent of wind power. Isobel Redmond was for a time the leader of the SA Liberal opposition. In 2012 she blamed wind power for high power prices in SA. This was contradicted by a report from the Australian Energy Market Commission that stated that costs related to the renewable energy target contributed only 3% to electricity price rises. Also in 2012 Ms Redmond said that "[Wind power is] probably the least efficient and most unreliable of all the green energy sources", in contradiction of the available evidence.
Of particular note from about this time was a flyer about wind power development produced by the SA Liberal opposition that contained a number of lies and half truths. Had the statements in the flyer been adopted as government policy it would have put an immediate stop to wind power development in SA.
New SA LiberalsThe Liberal Marshall government came to power following the election of 2018/03/17. Since that time they seem to have become steadily more and more supportive of renewable energy, even to the point of announcing a target of 500% renewable energy for the state by 2050.The Western Australian LiberalsWA has had a Liberal government since the Carpenter Labor government lost power in 2008/03/23. The Liberal Barnett government lasted until 2017/03/17 when it was replaced with the Labor McGowan government.Only three wind farms were built in WA during the 2008-2017 period (apart from two community wind farms). Open NEM recorded that in 2014 exactly 50% of WA's power came from the burning of coal (8,514GWh of electricity). In 2020 the percentage had fallen to 36.4% (7,176GWh of electricity). That is, in proportional terms, a fall of 13.6% in the six years; and in energy terms, a fall of 1,338GWh, or about 16%. At the time of writing there were four coal-fired power stations in WA, all were near the town of Collie about 160km south of Perth:
New WA LiberalsGiven the coal-fired background in WA, to cut coal-fired generation to zero by 2025, as WA Liberal leader of the opposition Zak Kirkup has proposed would be an amazing achievement.(As of 2021/02/26 it was looking very unlikely that the Liberal/National coalition would win the coming 2021/03/13 election. Not surprisingly, the WA Nationals had distanced themselves from the Liberals and the power station shut-downs.)
I believe that the town of Collie has had the possibility of the closure of the power stations in view for years and has been trying to shift toward a tourism base. It is in a beautiful part of WA.
New WA Labor?Premier Mark McGowan has taken a leaf out of the old Liberal's song book and predicted disaster should the Liberals get into power and shut down the coal-fired power stations. According to Mr McGowan, there would be power failures and electricity costs would go sky high.These are exactly the catastrophes that the 'old Liberals' used to predict with the adoption of large amounts of renewable energy. The predictions were wrong and the concerns were proven to be unfounded; South Australia shut down its last coal-fired power stations in May 2016 with no problems. See SA's great success in adopting renewable energy.
The Victorian Liberals
The new laws listed a number of no-go areas where wind farms would not be allowed, a number of 'major regional centres' where wind farms would not be allowed within 5 km, and a law against any wind turbine being constructed within 2 km of any house without the consent of the home owner. The laws made it harder to build a wind farm in Victoria than to start a coal mine, extract coal-seam gas, or build a fossil-fuel-fired power station.
As I recall, the Napthine Liberal/National government that came to power on 2013/03/06 was less stridently anti-renewables.
Will the Victorian Liberals, whenever they eventually get back into power, continue the opposition to renewables of the Baillieu government, or will they follow the lead of the new SA Liberals and the New NSW Liberals and go all out for sustainability, for a viable future for our shared planet?
The New South Wales LiberalsNSW has had a Liberal government since the Keneally Labor government lost office in 2011/03/28.NSW, like Queensland, has abundant black coal resources and the export of this polluting fuel has brought billions of dollars for the investors who own the mines. There was little action on replacing fossil fuels with renewables from the O'Farrell government (March 2011 to April 2014) or the Baird government (April 2014 to 2017/01/23), but the Berejiklian government has been far more progressive.
New NSW LiberalsAn article on the ABC, written by Danuta Kozaki and posted 2020/11/09 was headlined 'NSW Government's $32 billion renewable energy plan announced'.Quoting from Kozaki's article: "NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean said the plan would drive investment in private infrastructure worth $32 billion in renewable energy over the next decade.NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, sworn in on 2017/01/23, seems to have decided, with SA Premier Steven Marsall, that the future of energy is with renewables. NSW government: Renewables. Quoting from the page: "Renewable energy comes from natural resources like the sun, wind and water. By harnessing these resources, NSW is fast transitioning towards a modern energy future – one which is sustainable, diverse and affordable for everyone." The Queensland LiberalsNot a single wind farm was built in Queensland under either a Liberal/National or a Labor government from 2002 to 2017.At the time of writing the Labor Palaszczuk government, which came to power on 2015/02/14 (replacing the Newman Liberal government which was in power since 2012/03/26), had an ambitious renewable energy target of 50% renewable energy by 2030.
The Liberals were in opposition at the time of writing, so we will have to wait and see if they have changed their spots.
The Tasmanian LiberalsThe Labor government of Lara Giddings passed power to the Liberal government of Will Hodgman on 2014/03/31. The premiership of Hodgman was replaced by that of Peter Gutwein on 2020/01/20.Tasmania has had the great majority of its power generated by hydro power for many years and, I believe, has not had a functioning coal-fired power station for many years. On 2020/11/19 legislation to double the state's renewable generation target to 200 per cent of the state's current needs by 2040 passed both Houses of Parliament.
Then there's the federal Liberal/National coalition
No matter how hard they tried the Morrison government could not have found an energy minister more opposed to wind power than Angus Taylor. In the 15 or so years up to the time of writing (early 2021) wind power has gone from near nothing to 10% of Australia's electricity supply and from near nothing to 42% of South Australia's electricity supply. If there is ever a choice to be made between fossil fuels and renewable energy Minister Taylor can be relied upon to follow the fossil path. Typical of the federal Coalition's stance is their refusal to provide any encouragement for transitioning to electric or hydrogen vehicles. They seem to be one of the few advanced nations in the world who are not supporting the transition to sustainable transport. The only (hopefully the first of many?) hint that they are moving toward higher ethical standards is PM Morrison's statement that Australia should aim at net zero emissions by 2050. He has not committed Australia to net zero by 2050. 2050 is so far into the future that it is meaningless to any government, 2050 is far too late to save the world from very serious climate change damage; but at least this is a first very small step. The big question is, will the federal Coalition government pigheadedly stand with fossil fuels and against most of the Australian states and most of the world's governments and against what needs to be done, or will they accept the inevitable, that we must all take action on the present climate emergency? |
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Related pagesThere are a number of links, both internal and external, scattered through the text.External sites...NSW government: RenewablesOn this site...Australia's energy FutureSouth Australia's energy future The Liberal's war on renewables Failings of Australian governments (before the Abbott Government). The Abbott Government, the Turnbull Government, the Morrison Government. |
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