Page 4293 - Week 13 - Thursday, 19 November 2015
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The cumulative effect of this reduction in the uptake of gas is that it becomes harder for the distributor to recoup the costs of the infrastructure from new customers. This means that the costs of the network are pushed onto the rest of the ACT’s gas consumers. But, even more importantly, as gas prices rise, those who can afford to switch to electric will do so, leaving those who have less financial capacity to install new heating systems worse off, paying higher costs for their gas to subsidise the remainder of the network as well as the higher prices of the gas itself. Once again, those who have the least capacity to withstand the change could be left with the highest fuel costs over a long period of time.
The ACT government, I believe, needs to be clear about the policy direction on gas and consider if it is good value for us to roll out expensive infrastructure that might be out of date before it is paid off. The last thing we want to see is gas consumers across Canberra having to pick up the tab for gas infrastructure in new suburbs that the residents there do not want or need. I believe that the ACT government could play a valuable role in providing information to the AER about our energy policy settings and what the vision or plan is for gas in the territory. That way, the AER can include that information in their assessment of revenue for Actew distribution.
It is clear that we have ambitious renewable energy targets, with greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of 40 per cent on 1990 emission levels by 2020 and zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2060. We should be clear about how our use of gas impacts on those targets and what might need to change in terms of our gas consumption.
So far we have not had a clear signal about what to do about gas either in response to climate objectives or in response to the desire to protect consumers. Obviously, however, the government has already moved to implement sustainability measures in new suburbs that might affect the rate of uptake of gas. Is that a policy objective, to move people off gas where possible? It appears not, because in other parts of government there are specific incentives to encourage people to install new gas appliances, albeit efficient ones. Take the list of eligible activities under the energy efficiency improvement scheme. It has a range of new eligible activities that earn efficiency rewards and that are effectively cross-subsidised by ACT energy consumers, such as replacing high resistance electric space heaters with efficient gas ducted systems and the like.
I completely acknowledge that there are energy efficiencies to be made by replacing inefficient electric space heaters, but we need to think about whether gas is the way to go. Only last week the government announced that the wood heater replacement program would include electric heating as an option. I think that is a good initiative, and it reflects the fact that we need to move away from gas.
The Greens do not believe that gas has a role as a transition fuel any more in the climate change debate. We acknowledge that this is a shifting debate. It was only four or five years ago that the ACT government was still talking about building peak gas-fired power stations in and around the ACT. We did not support that then, and I note that the ACT government does not support that now. That is a sign of the
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