There are calls from the backbench and elsewhere for the federal government to safeguard the future of coal. But do those calls make economic sense? A look at Queensland's energy landscape suggests not.
No money for new coal - and no change to the current situation for renewables, despite the treasurer’s claims.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Scott Morrison's budget speech held no surprises on energy, after months of debate over the National Energy Guarantee. The real news comes in July with the release of a crucial ACCC report on power prices.
Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities Paul Fletcher, speaking on Q&A.
ABC Q&A
On Q&A, Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities Paul Fletcher said South Australia's high electricity prices were "the consequence" of Jay Weatherill's renewable energy policies. Is that right?
New SA Premier Steven Marshall looks set to scrap the state’s renewable energy target.
AAP Image/David Mariuz
The end of Jay Weatherill's government has removed a significant obstacle to progress on the federal National Energy Guarantee – even though we don't yet know what the full policy will look like.
As federal and state energy ministers gather to discuss the Turnbull government's proposed National Energy Guarantee, many of the finer details of the modelling are not yet available.
As the Clean Energy Target fades away, perhaps a Dispatchable Reliable Energy Target will be innocuous enough to pass the Liberal party room and the Senate.
Has the political sun started shining on Jay Weatherill?
AAP Image/David Mariuz
Victoria's plan to legislate its own renewable energy target of 40% by 2025 shows how states are increasingly taking the energy policy reins away from the federal government.
Solar panels are still a rarity in WA’s lower-income areas.
Orderinchaos/Wikimedia Commons
Western Australia has huge amounts of sunshine and wind, yet only 7% of its energy comes from renewables. What's more, most households in the poorest suburbs are still locked out of the solar panel boom.
Enough blue-sky thinking: economists back the emissions policy that Alan Finkel has put on the table.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
A panel of leading economists has given its majority verdict on Alan Finkel's proposed Clean Energy Target: it may not be the best possible emissions policy, but we should get on with it anyway.
Over a period in which the Australian economy saw around 600,000 additional people get jobs, employment in the renewables sector has been going backwards.
AAP Image/City of Sydney, Damian Shaw
Estimates released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggest that the number of direct full-time equivalent jobs in renewable energy activities has continued to fall from its 2011-12 peak.
Will 2017 be the year Australia sorts out its energy policy?
Power image from www.shutterstock.com
The goals are clear: clean, cheap, reliable energy. But no-one can agree how we get there.
Renewable energy targets were a controversial topic at a recent COAG meeting between the Prime Minister, State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Skirmishes over funding for renewable energy research are just the latest battle in a saga that stretches back to the early 1980s – years before the public became widely aware of the climate threat.
A price on carbon introduced by the Labor government, dubbed the “carbon tax”, was more effective at motivating big emitters to act, compared to the current Direct Action plan.
Mick Tsikas/AAP