Ross Garnaut has slammed the federal government’s $600 million backing of a new gas-fired plant as a “waste of money” and likened it to the exercise of burying money and asking the unemployed to dig it up as a way of keeping them productive.
The eminent Australian economist and author of the Garnaut Climate Change Review made the comments to opposition climate spokesman Chris Bowen and former Labor candidate Sam Crosby on their podcast Rekindling Hope.
Ross Garnaut likened the government’s policy of funding “redundant” energy capacity to Keynes’ banknote theory.CREDIT:LOUISE GRONOLD
Last week, the federal government said it would instruct the Commonwealth-owned Snowy Hydro company to build a $600 million gas-fired power plant in the NSW Hunter Valley.
The 660-megawatt plant will operate just two per cent of the time and employ just 10 full-time workers.
Read the full article published in the Sydney Morning Herald 27th May 2021