Wind farms … and Tony’s ‘ruthless attack on the RET’

Christine Milne:

“While Hydro Tasmania has said moves to water down the RET wasn’t the deciding factor in pursuing the King Island wind farm, Tasmanians should be under no illusion that the Abbott government’s ruthless attack on the RET has undermined investment certainty.

“A cut to the RET will impact future investment in the state.

“In its recent profit statement Hydro pointed out that uncertainty around the RET was one of the “challenging conditions” which would affect future profits, and it will.

“This is a Liberal state and federal combination determined to destroy Tasmanian jobs and investment.

• TT Media here for Labor and Liberal reaction

• Chris Harries, in Comments: I think Hydro Tas position is correct, the King Island project was non viable with or without the RET. It’s main problem was declining power demand on the mainland, meaning Hydro Tas couldn’t cover its cost selling into a buyer’s market. The link from King Island to Victoria, including rectiformers, would have been prohibitively costly. This is on top of the community relations on King Island being not well managed. That said, the project would have been non viable under any circumstances without the national Renewable Energy Target being in place.