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Labor and the Greens have delivered a shock defeat to the federal government with a Senate vote to strike down plans to invest taxpayer funds in new fossil fuel technologies, taking advantage of the surprise absence of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson to win the outcome.

 

The Senate vote on Tuesday night vetoed Energy Minister Angus Taylor’s changes to regulations to expand the remit of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to fund the development of carbon capture and storage and “blue” hydrogen which is produced with gas.

 

ARENA was established by the former Labor government to support innovative renewable initiatives and make it more competitive with established energy technologies, but the plan to expand its investment remit triggered a furore among environmental groups.

 

The Greens and Labor each proposed a motion in the Senate to disallow the ARENA changes, which were drafted as regulations issued by the minister rather than amendments to the law.

 

The government hoped to gain a majority of senators to block the disallowance motion, but Senator Hanson’s absence proved decisive.

 

Mr Taylor had proposed a change to ARENA’s mandate to enable it to administer funding to support the government’s technology road map, which aims to work with the private sector to stimulate investment in lower emissions technologies that are selected for their commercial prospects.

 

Deputy Nationals leader David Littleproud said the technology roadmap was paving the way for carbon capture to be deployed on coal power.

 

“This is where the technology road map is important - like carbon capture storage. In fact, we’ve just invested $5 million in the coal fired power station Millmerran, in my own electorate, to expand their carbon capture storage,” Mr Littleproud said.

 

“That’s an exciting thing that I think, when you get back to the first principles of wanting to reduce emissions, then if you can go to the technologies - one in which the Biden administration is also trying to engage.”

 

Source : https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal