The misinformation and selective information of Craig Kelly
I posted the following to Australian Liberal Party politician Craig Kelly’s Facebook page but it seems to have been deleted. He spoke with Peta Credlin on Sky News on 27 Nov 2017 about renewable and nonrenewable energy sources. The interview contained a large amount of misinformation and selective information …
Interview is full of misleading information.
The RET [Renewable Energy Target] was introduced by the [John] Howard govt in 2001. It adds a negligible amount to power bills; one study says 1-5%; others are similar; one study has it reducing power bills by about 2030, which is one of the ideas of the RET.
Yes, subsidies to renewables are about $3b a year but those to nonrenewables are about $10b a year.
The NEG [National Energy Guarantee] is long on rhetoric and short on detail. Unlikely to get state agreement.
Various savings figures have been given re the NEG ($100-115, $120, $140, $400 a year) but no detail of how it’s calculated is given; you can feed anything into a model and get the answers you want.
With solar and wind energy, it still works when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow; Google it.
SA [South Australia] blackouts were caused by severe storms, not renewables. Transmission towers blew over in high winds. Authorities made a decision to shut off all power as a precaution. SA electricity, like the rest of Aust, is expensive due largely to $45b network upgrades in 2009 to 2014; very large country and fairly small population means high per capita costs for poles and wires etc.
Diesel generators in SA will be used as back-up in peak periods over summer; ditto Victoria which also used them in 2014 (under a Liberal state govt) after forecasts of a long hot summer.
Electric cars can be bought for under $40k [not $200,000 as indicated on the show]; running costs per km are much less than petrol cars except when coal is the energy source. Electric cars aren’t the problem, coal is.
Yes, we’re contributing $200m to the UN Green Climate Fund to help developing countries cope with climate change/global warming. Paulo Oquist of Nicaragua is set to be a co-chair of the GCF. The position steers the meetings. The 24-member board of the GCF makes the decisions on a consensus basis. Nicaragua isn’t running the show.
No wonder the hard right isn’t in charge.
