Community group, Climate Action Sydney Eastern Suburbs (CASES), welcomes the passing of the Clean Energy Bill 2011 in the lower house of the Federal Parliament, stating that it was an important step for helping Australia make the shift to a cleaner, healthier economy and environment.
“The passing of the Clean Energy Bill 2011 – as well as the announcement of a head for the new renewable energy fund – will be welcomed by communities across Australia who want to see the rapid rollout of renewable energy,” said Greg Olsen, spokesperson for CASES.
“With the passing of this legislation Australia will be in a much stronger position to power our economy from our abundant natural resources of sun, wind, geothermal, tide and wave energy.
“This is great news for the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney because it will give us access to larger and cheaper amounts of clean, renewable energy. Indeed, a report by the Australian National University in September announced that solar power generated by photovoltaic cells on Australian rooftops has become so cheap and efficient that they now produce electricity for the same price that is charged by the electricity producers using polluting coal and gas fired power stations. The pricing mechanism for CO2 equivalent pollution legislation will make this even cheaper.” Mr Olsen said.
“CASES’ recent work talking to hundreds of people in Bondi, Randwick, Maroubra and Phillip Bay revealed that Australians want to see a rapid transition to renewable energy. They want to see concentrating solar thermal plants, such the one recently made operational in Spain built in Australia. They want to see our leaders tackle rising energy prices and invest in cheaper sources of power that break our bondage to fossil fuels. They don’t want coal seam gas extraction, as this is NOT a clean or renewable energy source.
“We met with Peter Garrett, MP for Kingsford Smith, a couple of weeks ago to tell him of our work and encouraged him to build on the spirit of bipartisanship that underpins the Renewable Energy Target and get behind the carbon price and new renewable energy funding.
“Right now Tony Abbott and the Coalition seem to be committed to locking us into high cost, dirty energy forever. The Opposition needs to get serious about renewable energy.
CASES, together with the 100% Renewable Energy campaign will be working to ensure that the carbon price and renewable energy fund delivers on its potential of delivering new big solar projects across the country .
“The passing of the Clean Energy Bill 2011 is a good step towards a 100% renewable energy future and shows that we can be more ambitious than we have been until now.
“It’s time to start turning the potential of renewable energy in this country into a reality.”
