Energy Minister Angus Taylor has dismissed criticism that a renewed push for gas projects is at odds with the government’s plans for a lower carbon future. Mr Taylor last week released a discussion paper on the government’s energy technology roadmap, which pointed to domestic gas, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage and even small-scale nuclear reactors as the key to shore up the sector in the transition to renewable energy. Speaking with Sky News, the minister said the criticism of gas projects was “just not right”. “We’re going to meet our 2020 targets by almost a year’s worth of emissions and that was even before COVID-19 came along,” he said. “We are already on track to meet and beat our 2030 targets. We’ve planned and budgeted down to the last tonne how that is going to be achieved and that assumes a significant role of gas.” He said the system needed “balance” in its transition and reiterated the government’s stance emerging technologies would be bolstered by consumer choice, not taxes. “The idea you flip your energy system overnight … is just crazy. There needs to be balance in the system,” Mr Taylor said. “The whole point of the technology roadmap is to push those emerging technologies to the point where people chose them because it is good for them and it is good for their business. “We didn’t replace horses with cars by taxing horses. It was technology that made that possible.”
from news.com.au — Australia’s #1 news site https://ift.tt/2WWhEJA
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