reu-2018-03-17 South-Australia energy-policy -i360 election-datamining
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-politics-southaustralia/australias-liberals-win-state-election-in-blow-for-renewables-lobby-idUSKCN1GT0GS?il=0
Australia's Liberals win state election in blow for renewables lobby
Alison Bevege
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's governing Liberal party has won a tight
regional election in South Australia, a victory that could deal a blow to
national renewable energy plans.
Saturday's poll pitted the conservative Liberals against the state's
ruling center-left Labor party, while independent Nick Xenophon's new
party SA Best failed to win the balance-of-power and have the final say
over which major party governs.
Incoming Liberal premier Steven Marshall gave his televised victory
speech just after 10 p.m. local time.
"It is a tough job, but I tell you what, I'm really looking forward to it
.... It's a new dawn for South Australia."
With 63 percent of votes counted, it was expected the Liberals had won 24
of the 47 lower house seats, giving it a majority to form government in
what may have national implications for renewable energy policy.
The vote was seen as a choice between solar and wind energy, pushed by
Labor, and coal, backed by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's
conservative government.
South Australia, the country's fifth most populous state, has the most
wind and solar power but the highest electricity prices in the country.
Its 1.7 million citizens suffered repeated blackouts over the last two
years when intermittent wind power was insufficient and back-up power
from coal and gas was unavailable.
Outgoing Labor premier Jay Weatherill had announced a plan in February to
create a network of 50,000 home solar systems backed by Tesla Powerwall
batteries.
Turnbull mocked the state's renewables policy as a "reckless energy
experiment" that created the highest electricity prices in the developed
world.
The federal government wants to introduce a national energy policy that
has no renewable energy target but sets requirements for emissions cuts
and reliability. South Australia's Labor government had refused to go
along with it.
Energy policy specialist David Blowers at the Grattan Institute
think-tank told Reuters last week that if the Liberals were to win in
South Australia, the federal government could be expected to get the
approval it needs to proceed.
The South Australia Liberal party also used a data-mining computer
program to intensify lobbying in marginal seats for the first time in
this election.
The i360 app imported from the United States uses information gleaned
from social media, polls and surveys to pinpoint vacillating voters'
addresses and the issues they care about in key marginal seats so they
can be targeted for lobbying.
If the data-driven widget is credited with the Liberals' victory, it may
become more widely used in future elections.
The official result of the final vote tally may not be known for several
days.
Reporting by Alison Bevege; Editing by Mark Potter