The Federal Government’s Draft Energy White Paper 2011 has been released. On page 15 it posits, “Suggestions that Australia should aggressively move exclusively to one or two renewable energy technologies to supply its energy are neither feasible nor realistic.”
This clearly shows the lack of vision front and centre of our Federal Government’s planning for a sustainable energy future for our great country. Surely they have heard of Beyond Zero Emissions “Zero Carbon Australia” report? Earlier, in the same paragraph, it writes, “we are fortunate in having gas, carbon capture and storage …. to aid us in the transition to a cleaner future.” Folks, carbon capture and storage (CCS) DOES NOT EXIST IN ANY CREDIBLE FORM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD and yet our Federal Government is relying on it to give us a ‘clean energy future’. Sorry, but a CCS policy is “neither feasible nor realistic”. Also, gas, particularity coal seam gas, is neither clean nor safe when one takes into account fugitive emissions and externalities such as damage to the environment, farmland and public health.
Renewable energy, such as concentrated solar thermal, as promoted on this website, must take the highest priority in planning for Australia’s future energy need in terms of sustainability, security and safety. This is EXACTLY what Australia needs to wrench us from our dependency on fossil fuels. Energy security is guaranteed with renewable sources of energy production. This technology is commercially available and is being embraced by visionary countries around the globe. Any other approach is to sell Australians short, sentencing us to the shackles of insecure, polluting, ever more expensive and environmentally damaging fossil fuels for decades.
