Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Bill 2009 and related bills

The majority voted against a series of amendments introduced by Liberal MP Greg Hunt. This means that the amendments will not be proceeding.

Briefly, Hunt MP explained that the amendments would have done the following:(You can read his whole explanation here. )

• "a full and complete decoupling of the energy intensive sector from the emissions trading scheme"
• "ensure that the 35½ thousand gigawatt hours of new energy carries with it a 90 per cent exemption for the aluminium sector, because it is perhaps the most energy-intensive and trade-exposed sector of all"
• "guarantee security for the food processing sector"
• "ensure that a loophole in relation to the heat pump sector is dealt with"
• "achieve a target of 8,875 gigawatt hours by 2020, or exactly one-quarter of the 35,500 gigawatt hours of additional energy contained in this bill as the new and additional renewable energy target ... [and] ensure that that quarter ... is reserved for the emerging technologies"

Background to the bills

These three bills were introduced as a package to separate the existing Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme into two parts: the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET) and the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES).(Read more about the RET scheme here and here. ) This split recognises the difference in scale between the household and industrial sectors.

The RET scheme was first introduced by the Howard Government in 2001 with the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Bill 2000. It supports renewable energy by requiring large buyers of electricity to source a greater percentage of electricity from renewable sources.(Read more about this original bill in its bills digest (1.5 MB).)

The three bills are:

• Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Bill 2010
• Renewable Energy (Electricity) (Charge) Amendment Bill 2010
• Renewable Energy (Electricity) (Small-scale Technology Shortfall Charge) Bill 2010

References