Premier's gas policy to end up costing Victorians

Dan Andrews' signature policy would reportedly leave Victorians with empty pockets for more than a decade and only result in a household greenhouse gas emission reduction of about 3 per cent.

Premier's gas policy to end up costing Victorians
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A Dan Andrews policy urging Victorians to switch from gas to electricity will cost people money while making hardly any difference to emissions, a report has found.

Andrews Gas Substitution Roadmap, announced earlier this year, encourages Victorians to ditch their gas appliances and “upgrade to efficient electric appliances” in order to “lower energy bills and improve efficiency”.

But a study by Frontier Economics reported in The Australian says the plan, which will cut emissions by only 3 per cent, would take a decade or more to produce any savings for consumers once the cost of replacing appliances was taken into account.

Modelling relied on by the Andrews government when they released their policy did not factor in the money people would need to spend replacing appliances.

“If homeowners fork out for all high-efficiency electrical appliances in their home, it would take more than 12 years to get a return on investment for a relatively small reduction in their CO2 output,” Gas Energy Australia chief executive Brett Heffernan said.

“Given switching to these electrical appliances only reduces emissions by 9kg a week, the price of carbon abatement is a whopping $282.65 per tonne, which is 16 times higher than the average price per tonne of buying Australian carbon credit units at $17.35.”

Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio insisted Labor was “driving down Victorians’ power bills by supporting millions of households and businesses to install solar panels, switch to electric and energy efficient appliances and get a better deal.”

“Replacing old fossil gas appliances with new electric ones will save you money, and the only people who disagree with that are the people who sell fossil gas and their mates in the Liberal Party,” she said.

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  • By Avi Yemini

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