Friday July 25, 2008
Aussie electricity producers warn gas emission target would raise power bills 28%
CANBERRA (AP) - Australian electricity producers warned Friday that the government's aim of cutting the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020 to fight global warming could boost power bills by 28 percent.
The Energy Supply Association of Australia commissioned a cost analysis of the government's plan to tax air polluters for the carbon they produce from 2010.
Association Chief Executive Officer Brad Page said a quarter of the coal-fired electricity capacity on Australia's populous east coast would have to shut down to meet the government's target of a 20 percent emissions reduction.
"The modeling suggests that over the 10 years (from 2010) to 2020, power bills would rise in that scenario by about 28 percent on what they otherwise would be,'' Page told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
The electricity industry, which is mostly fired by Australia's abundant coal reserves, will need substantial government financial assistance to help absorb the cost of switching to low-emission power, Page said.
The warning of higher power prices comes as government figures revealed this week that Australia's annual inflation rate has reached a 16-year high of 4.5 percent.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised financial assistance to help the power industry make the transition toward a low emission economy but has released no details.
Opposition lawmakers argue the 2010 start date would be too early unless major polluters such as the United States, China and India agree to reduction targets by then.
The Nobel prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said emissions must level off within the next 10-15 years and then start to dramatically decline to avoid a rise in average temperatures that could have catastrophic consequences.
World leaders at last month's G-8 summit in Toyako, Japan, made a commitment to a voluntary 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gases worldwide by 2050, but offered no specifics on how to do it.
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