BIG business has warned that energy prices will soar further as Labor’s $10 billion clean energy fund pushes up the cost of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
In an escalation of the backlash against a key plank of Julia Gillard’s clean energy plans, a coalition of Australia’s top 100 companies is urging the government to dump its plans for a Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
Rather than it being technology neutral, a CEFC would pump taxpayer funds into green projects, they argue.
The move by the Business Council of Australia is significant, as it represents a widening of the rearguard action by business against the CEFC, which until now has been largely opposed by heavy industry, coal firms and coal electricity generators.
In a new submission to the government’s draft energy white paper, the BCA warns that the fund will be directed at projects that are likely to be “less economic than available alternatives”.
