SHANE Rattenbury has questioned the increase in subsidies for people who switch to gas heating from wood heaters, given that the ACT is heading for a carbon-free future, and has called for the scheme to support electric heating.

“It’s a strange policy to increase subsidies for homeowners who replace wood heaters with new gas heating at a time when we seriously need to consider how we can transition away from gas in order to meet our ambitious greenhouse targets,” Shane said.

“Addressing Canberra’s high usage of gas for home heating is the next big carbon challenge now that we have a commitment to reach our 100% renewable electricity target by 2025.

“While it may be a gradual process for those people already using gas to shift to electric-based heating, we certainly shouldn’t encourage people to start fresh with gas heating now. It’s totally counter-intuitive to the Government’s ambitions to be a carbon neutral city.

“Just last week the Melbourne Energy Institute at Melbourne University released a report outlining how using electric split-systems for heating was cheaper than using gas for heating, particularly in the face of rising gas prices in eastern Australia.

“By encouraging people to get onto gas now, we are ensuring that they will be the victim of predicted high gas price over the next 5 years. But by encouraging people to go electric now, we know they will be running on renewables in 5 years.

“Gas heating should be removed from the wood heater replacement scheme or, at the very least, the scheme should be extended to include electric-based technologies so that householders can choose to switch to a sustainable heating system,” said Mr Rattenbury.