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E&E News
29-06-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Republicans add tax on renewables, plan amendment against land sales
The Republicans' latest megabill text includes a new tax on renewable energy companies, beyond rolling back incentives from the Democrats' 2022 climate law. But even though the budget reconciliation legislation also includes language to sell some public lands for housing, the provision may not be around for much longer. The Inflation Reduction Act tax credit and public land proposals are among the most contentious items in the GOP's tax cut, energy and border security spending effort. Advertisement Hours after the Senate Republicans released theirlatest tax plan for the megabill, companies and lawmakers noticed a new tax affecting solar and wind companies. That's on top of stricter rollbacks than senators had floated earlier. The proposed tax would affect projects that don't meet new restrictions on renewable energy produced with parts tied to certain U.S. adversaries like China. 'The new tax could apply to many, if not all, wind and solar projects that start being built from effectively 2028 onward. All new projects would have one of two options: pay the tax or attempt to demonstrate compliance with the material assistance limits,' said Ben King, associate director of climate and energy for the Rhodium Group, a consulting firm. 'The challenge with the latter is that the rules for demonstrating compliance still need to be written, and it's likely to be a process that's onerous bordering on impossible — even if you actually have a manufactured product that would meet the material assistance limits,' King said. It's unclear whether renewable energy supporters in the Senate will try to strip the language when the amendment vote-a-rama begins ahead of final passage. Energy Secretary Chris Wright released a statement in support of the tax provisions. Elon Musk said the bill favored industries of the past. Public lands Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) at the Capitol. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Senate Republicans leaders have apparently promised Montana Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy and others an amendment to strip language to sell some public lands for housing. The parliamentarian had yet to say whether the proposal from Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) complies with budget reconciliation rules. 'I have just concluded productive discussions with leadership. I will be leading an amendment to strip the sale of public lands from this bill. I will vote yes on the motion to proceed,' Sheehy wrote on social media Saturday. 'We must quickly pass the Big Beautiful Bill to advance President Trump's agenda.' Montana's other Republican senator, Steve Daines, has also trumpeted such an amendment, and both of Idaho's Republican senators have voiced opposition to land sales in reconciliation. Reporters Tim Cama and Garrett Downs contributed.
ABC News
18-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
NT government backflips on 2030 emissions reduction target promise
The Northern Territory government has revealed it will not implement a 2030 emissions reduction target that it promised before the last NT election. The Country Liberal Party (CLP) committed to a 43 per cent reduction in the NT's greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, six weeks out from the 2024 territory election. Then in opposition, the CLP's policy was in contrast to Territory Labor, which did not promise a 2030 emissions reduction target. Both major parties went into the election promising net zero emissions by 2050. At the time, the CLP was lauded by the Environment Centre NT for having "the strongest climate policy" of the two major parties. But in NT budget estimates on Wednesday, Environment Minister Josh Burgoyne said the CLP government had not adopted its promised 2030 emissions target. "[The 2030 target] is not current government policy," he said. "There's the [overarching] target of that net zero by 2050, which has yet to change." Under Australia's commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change, the country is committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. While in opposition, the CLP also supported Labor's legislated 50 per cent renewable energy target, but scrapped that in March. During a CLP central council meeting at the weekend, party delegates passed a motion supporting the abandonment of net zero and a withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. In a social media post, CLP Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the "current impact of these polices" did not "justify their burden of everyday Aussies". "It's high time we did something about it," she said. "While it's important to steward our country and environment well, that should not come at the cost of our economy and way of life." However, when asked in budget estimates about the central council meeting motion, Mr Burgoyne said the NT government was still committed to net zero. "Our position on net zero emissions has not changed since the position we took to the election," he said. "There's been no formal information provided by my department in regards to a changing in regards to net zero." During budget estimates, the NT government's executive director of environment, Paul Purdon, said the department was finalising a "first-look" assessment of climate risks in the territory. Mr Purdon said the assessment would be focused on future liveability in the NT, looking at "themes" such as community health and wellbeing, economic sustainability and natural disaster readiness. Asked why there was a lack of money for climate mitigation measures allocated in the NT budget in May, Mr Burgoyne said the assessment first needed to be finalised. "We need to first assess those risks, deal with the issues which we face here in the NT, and ensure our government, through our departments, are dealing with them in the best way possible," he said.
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Cost of net zero by 2050 may determine whether Coalition abandons emissions goal, shadow minister says
The financial cost to reach net zero by 2050 may shape the Coalition's decision on whether to retain or abandon the target, the new shadow minister, Dan Tehan, says, as he prepares to lead a heavily contested internal review of the policy. The opposition is poised for a protracted brawl over climate targets after the new Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, put all of its policies up for debate after the Coalition's federal election defeat. The Coalition remained deeply torn on net zero, with Nationals such as Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce campaigning for the commitment to be dumped and Liberals including Andrew Hastie – touted by some as a future leader – expressing fresh scepticism about the goal. In his first interview with Guardian Australia as the shadow energy and emissions reduction minister, Tehan said there was 'room for all voices to be heard' in the debate. Asked whether it was possible to land an agreed position, given such divergent views, Tehan said: 'That's the challenge that Sussan (Ley) has asked me to undertake. 'I mightn't have many capabilities but one I do have is dogged determination,' he said. Tehan said details about the review process would be released imminently, with the Coalition's position on the Paris agreement and gas reservation scheme also up for debate. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter The Liberals and Nationals have already walked back the Peter Dutton-era nuclear energy plan, agreeing to pledge to lift the federal moratorium but stopping short of committing to building government-owned power plants. As the opposition weighs up the pros and cons of pursuing net zero, Tehan signalled the economic cost of decarbonising the economy would be the main consideration. 'The cost will be one of the most significant factors that will drive our decision,' Tehan said, accusing the government of obscuring the cost of signature climate policies, including the capacity investment scheme. The government does not have a dollar figure for achieving net zero by 2050. However, in response to a recent Senate estimates question on notice that sought such a number, climate department officials warned of the significant cost of 'climate inaction' for Australia. The response – dated 29 May – referenced the 2023 intergenerational report, which estimated the commonwealth could be forced to spend an extra $130bn on disaster payments by the 2060s due to climate-fuelled disasters including bushfire and floods. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Tehan wants to focus the wider climate and energy debate around economics, vowing to apply more scrutiny to the cost of Labor's renewables-focused path to net zero than it was subjected to during the election. Senior Coalition MPs have conceded Dutton's campaign was too slow to counter Labor's attacks on its supposed $600bn nuclear reactors, allowing that claim to overshadow questioning of the price tag for the government's approach. 'What I'm going to do is, I'm actually going to say to Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen, 'what are the true costs of your approach,'' Tehan said. 'I will hold them to account on that. And that, I think, will make us very competitive at the next election. They might actually find that they're going to be held to account in the same way they tried to hold us to account.' Along with the proposed taxpayer-funded nuclear power plants, Dutton's plan for an east coast gas reservation scheme represented a significant government intervention that caused unease among free-market Liberals MPs. Tehan said while government intervention was appropriate in cases of 'market failure', the priority should be to stimulate private investment. If Albanese secures a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7, Tehan said the prime minister should confront the US president about his intention to pull out of the Paris agreement and what impact that might have on Australia. Tehan said Albanese should also ask Trump if he would attend next year's UN climate summit if Australia won the hosting rights.
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
David Littleproud says Nationals will review net zero policy, contradicting deputy
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, says his party's support for a policy of net zero emissions by 2050 is up for review, contradicting his deputy and raising doubts about the looming cooperation agreement with the Liberals. After days of turmoil within the Coalition, Littleproud told Sky News he was relaxed about speculation his leadership could come under challenge from former leader Michael McCormack, denying there was division within the Nationals. 'We've got a party room position on this but obviously during this period of parliament, like in the last period, we'll continue to review some of those policies, including net zero,' Littleproud said on Monday night. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email 'I think we've got to understand that the world is finding it increasingly more difficult to achieve net zero by 2050 and the serious economic impact.' Littleproud said Australia needed to pursue a sensible energy mix to ensure future prosperity. But his comments on net zero by 2050 were at odds with comments by the deputy leader, Kevin Hogan, just a day earlier. Hogan told ABC TV on Sunday morning that the Nationals' position on net zero climate policies was settled. 'The Nationals support net zero [by] 2050,' he said, stressing the policy had been in place for seven years and 'that's not up for review or being changed'. Hogan's comments came as Queensland Liberal National party senator Matt Canavan promised to keep fighting against net zero, calling Australia's commitments under the Paris climate agreement 'crazy'. 'We haven't had this debate yet. We haven't adopted a position on net zero since the election as the Nationals party room so a leader cannot take that forward without the authority of the room,' Canavan told Sky. Amid the confusion, Littleproud and opposition leader Sussan Ley are this week finalising a new coalition agreement and preparing to appoint a joint Liberal-Nationals frontbench. Moves to abandon net zero plans would be opposed by some Liberal MPs. Littleproud walked the Nationals away from the Coalition last week, before reversing course after Ley gave in-principle support for four policy demands from the minor party. They included a policy to lift Australia's moratorium on nuclear energy, a $20bn regional infrastructure fund, communication services guarantees in the bush and new forced breakup powers for supermarkets and other retailers found to be abusing market share. The Nationals are expected to have six frontbench positions in the new-look opposition, as well as some outer ministry roles. McCormack and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce could be overlooked for the next generation of Nationals as part of the new lineup. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Monday said net zero is 'important' but stressed the shift to renewables required confidence from firming capacity, or grid firming, including from fossil fuel projects. The federal government could approve an expansion of Woodside's North West Shelf extension project as soon as this week.
