Three weeks ago, Prime Minister Turnbull spoke to the National Press Club and suddenly ‘clean coal’ was on the agenda again. This is despite the fact that it’s dirty, it’s expensive, and nobody wants to fund or build a clean coal plan.
Now the Government wants to go one step further - Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg is hoping to take the Clean Energy Finance Corporation - a $10 billion fund to invest in clean energy - and open it up to funding coal-fired power.
This goes against what the CEFC was designed for. The CEFC should remain coal-free.
Tell Minister Frydenberg: don’t meddle with the CEFC.
The CEFC is a clean energy success story. It’s helping to fund clean, safe energy generation across Australia. It’s creating jobs, it’s cleaning up our energy supply, and it’s actually making a profit - it’s not actually costing the Government.
Yet Minister Frydenberg is thinking of allowing coal-fired power plants to access CEFC financing. He’s even looking at installing new board directors to influence the CEFC’s future direction.
The CEFC ain’t broke. There’s no need to fix it. It’s time for Minister Frydenberg to move on from coal and work to support an initiative that is already working.
Tell Minister Frydenberg: keep the CEFC coal-free.
More information
The Australian. 20 February 2017.