The Australian Green Party is to establish an Energy Savings Agency which will make the country’s energy system fairer, cheaper and cleaner.
“The Federal and State Governments have failed to prevent unnecessary spending on new electricity poles and wires” said Senator Christine Milne, the Greens Leader. “Make no mistake, several state governments want to maximise profit from their electricity assets. Selling less electricity is not in their interest which is why reform of the energy market is too slow and why intervention is vital. Nearly a quarter of all our electricity bills pay for the cost of installing infrastructure that we have built to supply electricity for just 40 hours a year during peak demand periods.”
Senator Milne added that for every $100 of an average citizen’s electricity bill, $51 is for poles and wires with only $9 allocated to carbon pricing. She stated that Australia needs an independent agency to provide information, analysis, advocacy and financial support to help remove barriers to cheaper and cleaner energy options.
The new Energy Savings Agency will prioritise the reduction of power bills by achieving $1 billion in energy savings as a result of negotiating energy targets and providing $400 million per year for five years to urgently reduce energy demand during peak periods. It will also pay Australians fairly for clean energy generation from solar panels and other microgeneration technologies as well as designing a National Energy Efficiency Scheme in order to save energy and money at home and at work.
“This is a major investment in Australia’s clean, green future” Senator Milne continued. “We need the Energy Savings Agency to help ease the pressure on Australians, reduce the pollution that is driving global warming and ensure Australians get a decent price for investing in solar energy.”
The Senator said that the proposal has already been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office which calculated that it will cost $405 million to run each year.
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