The Carbon Sense Coalition’s response to the draft Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Bill 2008 makes the following conclusions (among others):

• There are no climate benefits in mandating ever increasing shares of the electricity market for “renewable” energy. Therefore any scheme to generate electricity should stand on its own feet with no special tax breaks, subsidies or mandated market shares to support it.
• All of this also leads to the conclusion that mandating market shares for “renewable energy” is not justified. This is just a sneaky way to impose taxes on conventional electricity generators in a way that most consumers will not notice. It is part of a deliberate Stealth Tax Scheme. It will stifle growth and deter economic recovery.
• Mandated market shares are incompatible with the logic (if there is any) of Emission Trading Schemes or carbon taxes.

Read the stealth-taxes.pdf full submission [PDF, 184 KB]