NSW Nationals say Electricity Supply Amendment (GGAS Abatement Certificates) Bill 2009-rush, a 'disgrace': no consultation with electricity retailers

First 12 of 12 paragraphs shown Duncan Gay - Leader of The Nationals in the NSW Legislative Council, and Shadow Minister for Energy said "Industry has not been consulted on this bill".
Disgraceful: "The industry is not aware of where the Minister is up to on it, and it is a disgrace that the Minister has treated the industry—an industry that is reasonably supportive of him—with disdain".
Supposed to reduce electricity pollution: Ian Macdonald (Minister for Primary Industries, Minister for Energy, Minister for Mineral Resources, and Minister for State Development) said the "Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme, or GGAS, was designed to reduce emissions from the use of electricity in New South Wales, and to encourage activities that offset the production of emissions".
Category A projects - money for nothing?: Category A generation refers to output from generation projects that pre-dated GGAS. These projects were commissioned prior to 1997.
Secret voluntary actions: " At the commencement of GGAS it was decided that abatement projects that had been brought to account under the precursor voluntary "benchmarks" scheme would be recognised under GGAS on the basis that this would provide credit for early action".
Some folks made good money: More than 90 million abatement certificates have been created under GGAS.
20 million certificates have been registered per year: In the early years:
- seven million certificates per year were registered
- in the years 2006 to 2008 more around 20 million certificates were registered per year;
- from well over 200 accredited GGAS abatement projects.
Too succcessful: However, the success of GGAS "in bringing forward low cost abatement has brought with it challenges as the supply of certificates now comfortably exceeds the demand for certificates for compliance purposes. This, together with the uncertainty around the treatment of unused GGAS certificates at the commencement of the CPRS, has led to a significant fall in the price of GGAS certificates". The Bill was defered to September, as Parliament closed for winter.
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