LNP Energy Roadmap pathway to fossil fuel fantasy land

The Queensland Government's new Energy Roadmap shackles Queenslanders to more coal breakdowns, higher power bills and emissions, according to the Queensland Conservation Council.

While the Energy Roadmap (PDF 19mb) outlines the need for investment in new renewable energy and storage, it fails to adequately plan for the inevitable closure of the state’s retiring coal power stations – risking power bills, energy reliability and the State’s emissions reduction commitments.

The Energy Roadmap estimates that 3.4 GW of new large-scale wind and solar capacity will be built by 2030, which is 5.7 GW less than predicted in the previous Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan.

QCC says this plan seriously underestimates the amount of renewable energy backed by storage that will likely be built in Queensland over the next five years based on projects progressing in the pipeline.

Queensland Conservation Council Director Dave Copeman said

This Energy Roadmap is designed to pander to fossil fuel loving party members and donors, it’s not the sensible plan ordinary Queenslanders need to manage and replace Queensland’s struggling coal-fired power stations.

Clearly the Crisafulli Government is too scared to be upfront with Queenslanders that coal keeps failing and won’t be around forever.

The Queensland LNP’s moves to axe renewable energy and storage projects, bank on expensive gas and keep Queenslanders chained to failing coal power stations is a recipe for higher power bills and less reliable energy.

Queensland’s coal power stations are increasingly unreliable as they age. They were offline a staggering 78 times over the last summer period because they keep breaking down

The Government’s announcement of a $400 million renewable energy and gas investment fund is less than we estimate it would cost to extend the life of just one of Queensland’s failing coal power stations by a year.

The Treasurer's savings claims crumble under the slightest bit of scrutiny. Their modelling doesn’t factor in that we have to replace coal at some point, and completely ignores costs associated with burning coal and gas for longer. It's a nonsensical number designed to hide that this is a plan built on ideology, not economics.

Even if you put aside the urgent need to reduce harmful climate pollution, we need to plan for the replacement of retiring coal to manage power prices and make sure there are new jobs and industries set up in affected regional communities. But in this Roadmap, not one thought is given to transitioning regional communities.

By massively extending the life of coal and not setting firm coal closure dates, the Crisafulli Government is creating uncertainty in the market and sending the signal that regional Queensland is closed for clean business.

This plan to keep coal open for decades shows the Crisafulli Government isn’t serious about their pre-election climate action promise to Queenslanders. They’re essentially wiping their hands clean of their responsibility to protect the Great Barrier Reef and threatened species.

The Queensland LNP committed to reduce Queensland’s emissions by 75 per cent by 2035 before they were elected. If they continue down this road to fossil fuel fantasy land, they will break that promise and expose Queenslanders to more climate-driven disasters.

Overall, this roadmap seriously underestimates the amount of solar and wind farms that are progressing through Queensland’s pipeline and will likely be built by 2030.

Keeping Queensland’s state-owned coal power stations running for longer will produce an estimated additional 207 MtCO2e of pollution, which is equivalent to 88 million cars driving for a year.

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