CANBERRA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Australia's governing party on Tuesday approved Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's signature energy policy.
After the first party room meeting since parliament returned from its Winter break on Monday, the Liberal National Party (LNP) on Tuesday morning voted to endorse the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) after 2.5 hours of debate.
The endorsement is a significant win for Turnbull, who can now take the policy to parliament for an open vote, after conservative government Members of Parliament (MPs) threatened to derail the NEG in its infancy.
"This is a policy which has been the subject of extensive consultation," Turnbull told reporters on Tuesday.
"We have received overwhelming support for it. It will deliver not only more reliable power, but cheaper power."
Under the policy, Australia would be committed to reducing its carbon emissions by 26 percent on 2005 levels by 2030.
Turnbull claims that it will lower household electricity prices by 550 Australian dollars (400 U.S. dollars) per year from year 2020 onwards.
However, Turnbull faces an uphill battle to get the policy through parliament with the Opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) ruling out support, saying it set the emissions target too low.
The LNP holds a narrow majority in the House of Representatives but four MPs, led by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, have reserved the right to join forces with Labor to defeat the policy.
Even if a majority of MPs in the House of Representatives voted in favor, the bill would move on to the Senate where the government's 31 members is short of the 38 votes required to pass a bill.
"The Labor party has to decide whether they want to support cheaper and more reliability electricity," Turnbull said on Tuesday, calling on ALP leader Bill Shorten to support the NEG.
However, Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler ruled out supporting a policy with an emissions target lower than 45 percent.
"Today is a substantial victory for the right wing attack on renewal energy and Australians will pay the price for Malcolm Turnbull's weakness on lost jobs and higher power bills," Butler said.
"Our view is that an emissions reduction target of 45 percent should be put in place."
In a statement released following the conclusion of the party room meeting, Abbott, who lost the Prime-ministership when he was defeated by Turnbull in a leadership ballot in 2015, said that a dozen government MPs expressed doubts over the NEG.
"Unfortunately, most explanations of how the NEG (as it stands without price targets) might theoretically get prices down sound like merchant bankers' gobbledegook," he said.
