Robin Chapple MLC, Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region and Greens WA spokesperson on Climate Change and Energy, today welcomed the findings of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) report into the feasibility of 100% renewable sources powering the major eastern states electricity grid.
“AEMO membership includes all the major eastern states power generators, who are not Greens fellow-travelers, which lends even more credibility to their findings”, Mr Chapple observed.
“The report confirms that 100% of the National Electricity Market (NEM) – the major south-eastern grid – can be satisfied using renewable inputs, while still meeting NEM’s stringent reliability requirements.
“They are following the trail blazed by the WA Greens, who demonstrated earlier this year how WA’s major electricity grid – the South West Interconnected System – could be powered by renewables, in our Energy 2029 report.
“Now, with the inclusion of NEM, it is obvious that practically the entire Australian electricity market can be supplied using renewable inputs.
“Only the massive inertia of the huge subsidies which keep the fossil fuelled clunkers burning – and the blinkered outlook of the dinosaurs in government, both here and in the east – is holding WA, and indeed the nation, back from a clean, greenhouse gas-free future”, said Mr Chapple.
“The Greens are the only party standing fully in support of the clearly-expressed demands of the WA people for phasing out fossil fuels in favour of renewables”, Mr Chapple concluded.
Greens Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam warned that “the vital national Clean Energy Finance Corporation will be abolished if the Coalition wins control of the Senate at the Federal Election”.
“While neither major party seems to understand the urgent need to embrace 100 per cent renewable energy, the Coalition actively undermines it at every opportunity. Tony Abbott is even actively undermining the Renewable Energy Target by refusing to assure investors that he will maintain the existing target for 2020. The technology exists to deliver all of Australia’s energy needs through renewable energy – what is missing is the political will.”
Energy 2029 plan: http://www.greenswa.net.au/energy2029
AEMO report: http://www.climatechange.gov.au/en/government/initiatives/aemo-100-per-cent-renewables.aspx
For more information please contact Robin Chapple on 0409 379 263 or 9486 8255, Scott Ludlam media contact Giovanni Torre 0417 174 302
