Turnbull to woo states to Australia energy plan

Bloomberg

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s government will provide modeling to the states in a bid to get them to back its proposed “national energy guarantee” to bolster reliability of Australia’s faltering electricity grid.
“It’s in the country’s interest and it’s in the states’ interests to get on board with this,” Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said.
Australia’s six states and two territories will need to approve the national energy guarantee for it to function properly. That may be a tough ask, particularly in states such as South Australia and Victoria that are governed by Labor, the main political opponent to Turnbull’s ruling Liberal-National coalition.
Turnbull ditched plans to set renewable power targets as part of his latest policy to lower electricity prices and require generators to guarantee reliable supply and limit emissions. The nation, one of the world’s biggest coal and gas exporters, is reeling from an energy crisis that has pushed up local power prices and cast doubt on the reliability of its grid.
Advocates for renewable energy have warned Turnbull’s decision to walk away from a clean energy target will mean a decline in clean-energy investment. The government has argued that falling costs mean technologies no longer need government subsidies to compete against traditional energy sources.