A planning policy clearing the way for a major residential development is invalid because the minister failed to consider contamination and wrongly took into account a conservation offset deal, the NSW Land and Environment Court has ruled.
There's slightly more money in the pot to help generators, but black coal power plants won't be eligible, while CPRS arrangements that would ease the pain of buying permits have fallen by the wayside, says ESAA chief Brad Page.
The coal industry has 'made a lot of noise' about the money it is putting into CCS when the reality is it has so far spent little, and the absence of support for the technology in the clean energy package is a serious omission, says the CO2CRC's Dr Peter Cook.
The Australian Aluminium Council says the Government's new package doesn't take account of changed international circumstances and the gas industry agrees, but steelmakers have given it the thumbs up.
The Energy Supply Association of Australia was a strong critic of the CPRS and has given the new package mixed reviews – and so too has the Australian Industry Group. Plus other reactions.
Large emitters will initially get the same share of free permits as under the CPRS and the first three years of trading will impose safety-valve constraints on permit prices. CE Daily details today's package and compares it to the CPRS.
Responsibility for large-scale renewables programs worth $3.2 billion will be removed from the federal energy department and handed to an independent body, as part of the carbon price package to be announced on Sunday.
