Al Gore: Australian government subsidising coal power would be 'crazy'

[Eugene]

Last edited Fri Jul 21, 2017, 11:31 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: The Guardian

Al Gore: Australian government subsidising coal power would be ‘crazy’

Calla Wahlquist
Wednesday 12 July 2017 08.59 BST

Any move by the Australian government to subsidise coal-fired power would be “crazy” and providing funding for infrastructure to support the Adani coal mine is “just nuts,” former US vice president and climate change campaigner Al Gore has said.

“Globally, the world is moving rapidly away from subsidies to fossil fuels,” he said. “It would be odd if Australia went in the opposite direction and subsidised coal. It’s impolitic of me to say it, but it would be crazy.”

The Adani Group’s proposed $16bn Carmichael coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, which is yet to get finance but has been promised $1bn from the Australian government to build a rail line to port, was particularly unwise, Gore said.

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It follows weeks of concerted lobbying by the Minerals Council of Australia, which has argued the federal government should consider introducing a reverse auction scheme to deploy dispatchable power into the grid, which would allow so-called “high-efficiency low-emissions” coal power stations to compete with wind and solar.

The auction could be designed in such a way to favour coal-fired power, despite wind and hydro power being cheaper.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/12/al-gore-australian-government-subsidising-coal-power-would-be-crazy

[Duppers]

1. Btw, the bots are out in force trying again to

discredit Al Gore.

And again, Al is right, it is crazy for the Australian government to subsidize this Carmichael coal mine! If only they'd put the $billion in to subsidizing alternative energy sources.