More Outstanding Conservative Leadership! Abbot To Cut Renewable Agency Funding 97% By 2015
The head of Australia’s flagship clean energy development agency says the organisation’s planned axing is a broken promise that will leave the country’s energy sector obsolete.
The Australian Renewable Agency chairman, Greg Bourne, blasted the decision in Tuesday’s budget to rip $1.3 billion out of the agency and reduce it to ‘‘a branch of an agency in the Department of Industry’’ with a ‘‘token amount’’ of funds. ARENA ‘‘had always been supported (by the Coalition) all the way through, before the election, during the election, after the election’’, Mr Bourne told Fairfax Media.
he agency, which issues grants to emerging technologies such as concentrated solar energy, faces uncertain funding for 2014-15, with the $436.64 million that is available currently falling to about $331 million if the government’s bill scrapping the carbon price gets through the Senate. Massive cuts follow in the next financial year, with the agency receiving just $15 million in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
Mr Bourne earlier this week described the government as “clearing the decks” of its support for renewable energy. Along with ARENA’s demise, the government is trying to eliminate the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and has appointed a climate change sceptic, Dick Warburton, to oversee the review of the Renewable Energy Target – a process most in the industry expect will see the goal weakened.
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http://www.smh.com.au/business/federal-budget/angry-head-of-renewable-energy-agency-says-axing-will-leave-energy-sector-obsolete-20140514-zrcc5.html
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