Investment in renewables would grind to a halt on the election of a Coalition government, once more plunging the energy transformation into costly uncertainty, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says.
“And so Australia would be trading investment certainty and urgently needed renewable investment for the hope of more costly reactors in two decades’ time.”Mr Bowen will say that, for this reason alone, nuclear power and renewable energy are incompatible. “I’m not ideological about nuclear, but the simple reality is that we can’t have them both, and so we face a critical choice in this critical decade,” he will say.Mr Dutton and his energy spokesman, Ted O’Brien, have announced plans to build seven state-owned nuclear power stations from the middle of next decade, saying there is no other way to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
The Coalition has always backed gas as the transition fuel whereas Labor demonised it, only to reverse that position in May when it realised gas would be needed until 2050 and beyond.