By Andrew Bolt ~
The Renewable Energy Target was meant to help stop the planet from warming. No one has every explained what difference – if any at all – it would actually make.
And only now are we asking what it will actually cost, too. Judith Sloan warns:
Apologists for the RET will make the claim that the extent to which the RET has contributed to higher electricity prices is small – 3-5 per cent.
This claim is contentious. It should be noted that the estimate only covers the cost of complying with the RET and does not include the change to wholesale electricity prices.
According to my calculation, and depending on the assumptions made about the cost differential of renewable energy over conventional energy, by 2020 electricity prices will be 25-40 per cent higher than would be the case had the RET not been in place.
This impact on prices is enough to cause considerable pressure on many households, leading to so-called “energy poverty”.
It is also more than high enough to drive many energy-intensive businesses to the wall or to relocate offshore…
One day people will marvel – horrified – that a generation of Australians could have done something so pointless at such huge expense.
Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia.
Andrew Bolt’s columns appear in Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and Adelaide’s Advertiser. He runs the most-read political blog in Australia and hosts Channel 10’s The Bolt Report each Sunday at 10am. He is also heard from Monday to Friday at 8am on the breakfast show of radio station MTR 1377, and his book Still Not Sorry remains very widely read.
Read more excellent articles from Andrew Bolt’s Blog . http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/
