Australia's "ungreen" government cans solar panel rebates

Stan Beer
Friday, 06 June 2008 12:28

Opinion and Analysis

Kevin Rudd has said this week that he wants to see ‘green car’, presumably electric, built in Australia, and immediately came under attack from the Australian Productivity Commission for supporting a scheme that will have little impact on carbon emissions.

Of course, the bone-heads at the Productivity Commission fail to realise that electric cars will have an enormous impact of the petrol bills of Australians.

Indeed, in the face of enormous carbon emissions from China and India over the next few decades, actually pushing ahead with green technology, whether solar panels on our roofs, or green electric cars, will actually put Australia ahead of the renewable energy pack, with technology to sell to the rest of the world, to help us ALL reduce carbon emissions.

There is no one silver bullet to the environmental crisis we face. But solar panels on everyone’s roofs, could easily be a source of power to charge up our electric cars, further reducing the carbon emissions footprint of every electric car owner on the planet.

Why is the Rudd Government thinking green on one hand, and thinking stupid on the other?

Perhaps because they are politicians, and despite all their rhetoric about thinking for the long term, and not the next electoral cycle, they are thinking about the next electoral cycle after all.

Then again, how many votes are there in crushing the solar panel industry into silicon dust?

Not many, not many at all.

The Rudd Government only has 2.5 years left to make a true impression on Australians. That time will whiz by faster than Kevin Rudd could possibly imagine.

Either he starts getting serious about his environmental credentials and really puts Australia onto the true renewable energy path, or he’ll be remembered at the Prime Minister who spoke the loudest about everything, but delivered nothing.

Time’s a tickin’, Kevin Rudd. Get those solar rebates back, start the electric green car plant ASAP, and while you're at it start building a nation-wide electric very fast train service, starting with the Melbourne-Sydney-Canberra route.

Environmentally unfriendly petrol and 'plane fuel are expensive – and so is crushing promising young industries like renewable solar power. Come on Rudd, get with the environmental program!