ACT Greens MLA for Molonglo, Shane Rattenbury says that Canberrans should feel proud that for a small cost per year they are helping make the ACT the leading jurisdiction in Australia on green energy.

“Even when you include the cost of all the ACT’s green energy initiatives, Canberrans still pay, on average, $600 per year less than their NSW neighbours in Queanbeyan.”

“The independent price regulator, the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission (ICRC), has set electricity prices for 2009-10 factoring in a range of issues that impact on cost – the cost of transmission losses and trading fees and charges, as well as green energy initiatives.”

“But it’s not the ICRC’s job to put a price on benefits to the community, and the feed-in tariff in particular will deliver more than just emissions reductions, it will also help grow local jobs in an industry of the future, and the beginnings of a decentralised energy system.”

“Stage 2 of the feed-in tariff will see large scale installation on the rooves of warehouses and shopping centres, and the cost to Canberrans will only be around an extra 65 cents a week.”*

“Tackling climate change will cost money in the short term, but not taking action will be far more costly – and early action to insulate ourselves from rising electricity prices will pay off in the longer term.”

“The Greens are calling on the Government to ensure that low income families are protected from the price rises by lifting the energy concession rate, which has been dropping in real terms over the past 5 years.” said Mr Rattenbury.

* based on 10MW installed capacity

Tags: feed-in tariff, renewable energy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 1:59 pm and is filed under News, Shane Rattenbury. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.