Today will be crunch time for the National Energy Guarantee.

After months of policy paralysis and rigmarole, Josh Frydenberg will present the controversial energy document to the Council of Australia Governments’ Energy Council this morning. Proceedings are already shaping up to be tense, with the Victorian Government saying it won’t sign until the Coalition commits to more than its 26% emission reduction target.

Liberal Senator Eric Abetz concedes that collectively, the recent string of federal governments have failed the Australian people on energy policy.

“Energy is absolutely fundamental to the cost of living, standard of living, jobs and the general wellbeing of the economy,” he tells Warren Moore.

“So the cost of energy has to be front and centre of any discussion that takes place today. Because the one thing that has kept Australia a first world economy has been its low cost and reliable energy.”

 Abetz agrees that the ideological obsession with renewable energy and the demonisation of coal has been entirely conducive to a price hike.

“In the 1990’s, we enjoyed the lowest energy cost in the world. Today, we’re about the second highest. That is an unsustainable proposition.”

“Sadly, we have allowed ourselves to slowly walk down the path of the renewable energy targets, which has needlessly exacerbated the cost of energy in Australia.”

“We were told that renewable energy would help drive down energy prices. Since then, prices have increased 50%.”

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