ENERGY
Draft IRP tainted by politics at the cost of rational energy policy
As prices for renewable energy are falling, the environmental and cost tide is turning against coal and nuclear
Crises make strange bedfellows. A national trauma such as war and climate disaster can create the moral and intellectual clarity that is difficult to achieve in the mess of daily life. In these moments we may find ourselves on the same side of issues as people we consider to be wrong, bad, even evil. We may find ourselves advocating for sustainable renewable energy perhaps on the same side as people lobbying against socio-economic transformation or justice; or advocating for the redistribution of economic resources through energy policy, on the same side as people denying the climate disaster and lobbying for new coal-fired power plants. The fact that people you do not want to agree with can hold the same position as you is part of the way democracies function. Agreement is the basis for coherent policy frameworks. The stakes are high because our electricity involves major infrastructure investments in the order of hundreds of billions of rand, as well as natural resource consum...
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