AEMO said Victoria,the state with the highest household gas demand and rapidly dwindling supply from its Bass Strait fields,could suffer a gas shortage as soon as this winter in the event of extreme weather conditions.
The gas shortage warning adds a new dimension to the standoff between the Greens and federal government over its safeguard mechanism reform ahead of parliament returning this fortnight,with the minor party’s leader,Adam Bandt,demanding a guarantee that all new fossil fuel projects will be vetoed in return for support for the signature climate policy.
Bowen rejected this demand and on Sunday said the only choice open to Bandt is to side with his government or resurrect the controversy of 2009,when the Greens vetoed the Rudd government’s emissions trading scheme because the party wanted a more ambitious policy.
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“It’s now up to Greens to decide if they want to vote with[Opposition Leader] Peter Dutton for another decade of climate wars,just like they did in 2009,” Bowen said. “Or if they want to support these massive reforms that will reduce emissions by over 200 million tonnes.”
The safeguard mechanism was created by the former Turnbull government in 2016 but it never set binding pollution targets. Bowen has already used regulations to tighten pollution caps so that Australia’s 215 biggest emitters mustreduce their carbon footprint by about 5 per cent a year until 2030.
The beefed-up safeguard mechanism is forecast to deliver about 30 per cent of the cuts needed to achieve the government’s target to cut emissions by 43 per cent by the end of the decade. But to achieve that it needs to begin by July 1 and Bowen needs parliament to approve one more element of the scheme to make it work – and has only three parliament sitting weeks left.