Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Energy spokesperson
Premier Hodgman’s decision to beg his federal colleagues to install a second Bass Strait cable shows he hasn’t learnt anything in the last six weeks.
The Premier wants to lock us into a future where Tasmanians continue to pay through the nose for imported dirty power and don’t own our electricity supply.
The Basslink fault shows how vulnerable we are, and our need for more on-island renewable generation.
So far, all the government have come up with is blowing another billion dollars on dirty electricity and burning our forests to make polluting biomass power. These are not clean energy options, and they won’t give us a secure energy supply.
Our current situation clearly shows that we should only install a second cable if we’re generating more than 100% renewable power, in drought years as well as wet ones. Without that, we’re still tied to the strings of the mainland’s grubby energy apron.
The Premier is clearly out of ideas for future-proofing the state. His priorities should be setting market conditions that encourage investment in renewables, refilling Hydro dam storage, aggressively pushing electrified transport, and using our renewable brand to entice green technology businesses to Tasmania.