Clean Energy Target: Libs bank on clean energy move to beat Labor

COALITION MPs are boasting the next election will be fought over “every single pensioner and senior trying to pay power bills” as it moves to ditch the Clean Energy Target renewable energy subsidy.

• Frydenberg hints government set to drop Clean Energy Target
• WATCH: Govt may back away from clean energy target

COALITION MPs are boasting the next election will be fought over “every single pensioner and senior trying to pay power bills” as it moves to ditch the Clean Energy Target (CET) renewable energy subsidy — with some saying it’s the issue that could help them win back voters lost to Labor.

Turnbull government MPs seized on a speech by Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg distancing the government from a CET as recommended by Chief Scientist Alan Finkel, saying the battle for the hip pocket was critical.

But Labor will push ahead with its support for higher renewable subsidies, with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten yesterday claiming Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was “caving in” to his predecessor Tony Abbott.

Mr Abbott has threatened to vote against a CET if it was proposed by the government.

Assistant Minister for Trade Keith Pitt told The Daily Telegraph Mr Frydenberg had “made some very commonsense comments”.

Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg. Picture: AAP

“It’s about every single pensioner and senior trying to pay power bills, it’s about the local bakery on the corner that won’t be able to employ staff because of the massive increase in electricity costs, it’s about our farmers,” he said.

The comments follow a speech from Mr Frydenberg in which he said the government was considering a CET “against (a) backdrop of a declining cost curve for renewables and storage”.

“Should reliability and affordability be compromised, public support for tackling climate change will quickly diminish and previous gains lost,” Mr Frydenberg said.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly. Picture: Britta Campion / The Australian.

Federal leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly said consumers “should be very relieved they are not facing the prospect of higher electricity bills to pay billions more in subsidies for intermittent and unreliable renewables.”

And Nationals MP Mark Coulton said while he welcomed renewable energy, a CET was a “philosophical argument” for those on good incomes. “If you’re on a fixed income and live in a town in western NSW, it’s not philosophical, it’s practical and if you can’t afford your power bill you’ve got to turn your airconditioner off,” he said.

But Mr Shorten yesterday said “walking away (from a renewable subsidy) is the worst possible option”. “It would leave investors in the lurch, sentence business to more uncertainty, more chopping and changing,” he said.

Australia's Chief Scientist Alan Finkel.

The government has accepted 49 of Dr Finkel’s 50 recommendations, which are intended to fix energy security, affordability and reliability issues. A CET would extend a scheme similar to the current Renewable Energy Target by pricing different types of electricity generation based on their carbon emissions.

The government has yet to make a final decision about a CET.