National energy guarantee: Queensland warned it risks 'writing a blank cheque'

The Smart Energy Council is urging the Queensland government to make any support for the Turnbull government’s national energy guarantee conditional, or it will risk dealing itself out of leading the effort on emissions reduction.

With the fate of the Neg to be determined at a definitive meeting of state and federal energy ministers in early August, the Queensland government has called in stakeholders for a meeting on Thursday to help determine its position on the policy.

The Smart Energy Council, which represents the solar industry, and environmental groups, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, are lobbying the Labor states to either reject the Neg in its current form or to make their support for the mechanism conditional.