June 4, 2024
Opposition claims that 28,000km of powerlines will have to be built to cater for renewable energy projects have been labelled a “lie” and a “myth”.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, speaking to host Steve Cannane on ABC RN on Tuesday morning, said 4000km of transmission lines were planned to be built by 2030.
“We have around 40,000km of transmission (lines) in Australia at the moment, and we need to add about 4000km by 2030 … a bit more than 900km are either built or substantially under construction of those 4000km,” Minister Bowen said.
“This myth that we have to build 28,000km by 2030 is just a myth, absolutely.”
Minister Bowen said the Coalition’s energy policy was a “delaying tactic” to keep Australia reliant on coal-fired electricity for longer.
“Which not only means higher emissions but also means a much less reliable system because the coal-fired power stations are ageing and increasingly unreliable,” he said.
Minister Bowen said the Opposition wanted to see the renewables rollouts paused while they developed the “fantasy” of nuclear energy.
Small Nuclear Reactors “do not survive contact with economic reality” as they were very expensive to build.
“No other country has them commercially operating anywhere in the world,” Minister Bowen said.
He again called on the Coalition to release its energy policy, which he said Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had promised to release “in a couple of weeks” 12 weeks ago.
“We can’t have the debate (on nuclear energy) until Mr Dutton releases the costings, the locations, the modelling and all the implications,” Minister Bowen said.
- External link: Will the next election be a referendum on nuclear energy? (ABC RN)
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