The Senate has just approved another review into renewable energy…the ninth in three years! When is it going to end? The science has been proven over and over again, this is a purely a political time waster.

“This is a farcical situation given that the industry is still awaiting the outcome of the government’s recent Warburton Review as well as another legislated review of the Renewable Energy Target by the Climate Change Authority,” said Clean Energy Council Policy Director Russell Marsh. “It is unclear how yet another review could draw any different conclusions given the many inquiries and reviews already undertaken in Australia. It is pretty obvious this inquiry is about politics rather than science, and it’s basically just Groundhog Day for this industry yet again.”

Previous reviews have shown that current policies are working effectively and this latest one is not going to prove any different. All this uncertainty is already affecting large scale investment (wind energy in particular has been hit badly) with a 70% drop in investments from 2013.

This review is set to focus on wind farms and their economic impacts as well as health concerns. There are (or were) so many wind farms being developed all around the country because they do make financial sense and help lower the wholesale price of electricity for everybody. Not to mention that they provide more clean energy into the grid, saving the environment we all live in.

The health impacts, such a wind turbine syndrome, have been proven as a myth again and again and again. Not only has the science been disproven – with research showing that infrasound was actually higher in the city or highly populated areas than by the wind farms – but cases have been taken to court which also ruled in favour of wind farms.

In addition to this, Senator Leyonhjelm has put forward a proposal on the RET that would reward existing hydro generation at the expense of new large scale renewable energy investments.

“This proposal would lead to a wealth transfer of more than $900 million a year, or $13.5 billion between now and 2030, paid to existing hydro power at the expense of much of the planned $14.5 billion of investment in new large-scale renewable energy,” said Clean Energy Council Acting Chief Executive Kane Thornton.

The CEC has labelled the Senators proposal as ‘economic vandalism.’ Hydro is an important part of our energy mix but the idea of the renewable energy target is to stimulate further investment and surge Australia towards 100% renewables – not solely reward one existing type of renewable energy generation.