The february issue of Engineers Australia contained two articles on the review of the Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets (MRET) measure. Paul Woolnough's article was a fair summary of the findings of the review and it is gratifying that Engineers Australia supports most of the recommendations contained in the report. Where we seem to part company is in the Institution's Public Policy Unit's view, expressed in Malcolm Palmer's article, that 10% additional renewable energy should be mandated by 2010. The Review Panel would dearly have liked to recommend a target of this level, and considerable thought was given to the matter. However, for a whole range of reasons outlined in the Report, not mentioned in the articles, a more realistic approach was adopted which would see a level of renewable generation of 10%, or even more, reached in time, but based on a sound, competitive industry, not on one requiring indefinite artificial support, possibly at the expense of other Australian industries.
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