The company behind the 1,000 kilometre-long, $1.5 billion proposed CopperString transmission line today announced it has signed an implementation agreement with the Queensland government.
Cheap, clean electricity will be essential to meet the federal government's roadmap goals of producing green aluminium and steel at no extra cost, according to industry experts.
Oliver Yates, the inaugural chief executive of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, says the government has made incorrect claims about the CEFC's existing powers, and has accused it of deception.
The federal government is targeting price reductions that would make CCS almost cost-neutral if it could earn carbon credits, allow green steel and aluminium to be produced with no price premium, and slash soil carbon costs by 90%.
The Clean Energy Regulator has almost 100 new ERF projects seeking accreditation, while grid connection problems have led it to qualify expectations that the 2020 RET target will be met.
In an EPBC decision that demonstrates impacts on bushfire-affected threatened species will receive close scrutiny, a proposed Epuron wind farm has been declared "clearly unacceptable".