Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has framed the next election as a showdown between nuclear power and renewable energy as the key to cutting Australia’s greenhouse gases.
Mr Dutton told reporters in Adelaide that the renewable energy favored by the Albanian government will struggle to take Australia to the twin goals of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
In laying the groundwork for the coalition to push for nuclear power at next May’s federal election, he said countries similar to Australia were making the switch.
“We need to have a mature conversation about nuclear energy,” Dutton said.
“It is the latest zero-emission technology that can boost renewable energy sources into the system.
Liberal leader Peter Dutton (pictured with his wife Krilly Dutton at last year’s Midwinter Ball) has backed nuclear power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Australia
Anthony Albanese won the 2022 election, promising to more than double the amount of green electricity entering the grid to 82 percent by 2030
“There are 20 countries similar to ours … that have a nuclear industry or are committed to one,” Dutton said.
Nuclear energy has been banned in Australia since 1998.
However, pending the federal ban’s reversal, the coalition has begun looking at six potential sites to locate nuclear power and believes converting decommissioned coal-fired power plants to nuclear power would be a good option.
Mr Dutton has previously argued that nuclear energy was “cheap technology”.
“The nonsense that (Energy Minister) Chris Bowen insists that nuclear power is expensive compared to wind and solar power – it’s a nonsense argument,” Mr Dutton said.
“We need to stick to the facts rather than the emotion on this issue, and we are going to lose industry, there will be smelters and others closed under this government, jobs will go overseas and emissions will go up.” still in the air.
“If we want a situation where we have blackouts, blackouts and rationing, as we see in Germany, then continue to follow the path that the government has set us on.”
The opposition leader stated this Australians have developed a negative image of nuclear energy through outdated historical incidents or pop culture depictions.
“Most people were influenced by the incidence of Chernobyl and elsewhere, some people in the study were influenced by The Simpsons,” Dutton said in August.
“If you’ve seen The Simpsons, some of the investigative work showed that people didn’t want a Springfield to show up in their backyard.”
Former chief scientist Alan Finkel, who was also a special adviser to the federal government on low-emissions technology, has warned nuclear power is not a quick fix to decarbonising Australia’s energy supply.
“Nuclear energy is an excellent source of electrical energy,” he told Nine News.
“However, it would be expensive and it is unlikely we can do this before 2040.”
Mr Dutton states that many other countries, similar to Australia, will use nuclear energy (in the photo a nuclear power plant in Belgium)
Albania’s Energy Minister Chris Bowen has rejected opposition calls to consider nuclear power
Mr Bowen has dismissed opposition calls to move to nuclear power as a “fantasy wrapped in delusion accompanied by utopia”.
The Albanian government projects that renewable energy sources will reach levels of 43 percent of 2005 C02 emissions by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050.
As part of its ambitious plan, Labor aims to increase the share of renewables in Australia’s national electricity market to 82 percent, up from about a third today.
Moving into the 2022, Mr Albanese pledged to cut energy bills for the average household by $275 by 2025, and by $378 by 2030, based on modeling that predicted adding more renewables to the mix would make electricity cheaper to make.
However, since the May 2020 elections, electricity bills have skyrocketed with no sign of respite.