Conservatives say it offers a pragmatic solution to contemporary challenges which will guarantee electricity supply by mandating the ongoing use of fossil fuels while not acting as a brake on the take-up of renewables despite the axing of existing subsidies.

Labor and the Greens, not surprisingly, argue it is potentially disastrous and will put Australia on the wrong track at a crucial turning point in world history by locking the nation into outdated and inappropriate technologies that will accelerate climate change.

If there is an absolute truth it probably falls somewhere between the two.

One thing that must be acknowledged is that almost any energy policy has to be preferable to the directionless vacuum created by the inability of the ALP and the Coalition to reach agreement on the way forward that has held up crucial investment decisions for the better part of a decade.

Defenders of Tuesday's announcement are right when they say it will provide the certainty needed to allow big energy to make the multi-million dollar investments vital to securing the future.

If this delivers that sort of stability then it is definitely a step in the right direction.

That said, there are clear dangers associated with embracing certainty at almost any price. The future of renewables appears to be the most obvious area of vulnerability at this time.

While the Government is adamant it can scrap the CET, and the associated renewables subsidies, because the cost of these technologies is coming down faster than it had expected, that is actually an untested assumption that has been hotly contested in many quarters.

The architects of the CET, and the renewables subsidies, would have been well aware that the more widely technologies were adopted the lower their cost would become.

By making the subsidy a victim of its own success the Turnbull Government risks seriously scaling back the rate at which solar, wind and other technologies are being adopted.

This could well derail a true sunrise energy in which Australia has a unique opportunity to lead the world.

Only time will tell if, as the Government claims, the new deal will deliver "reliable energy", allow Australia to meet its emissions reductions targets under the Paris Agreement and, most importantly, not impede the rate at which renewables are being taken up. It is vital that all of these metrics are monitored closely; particularly the latter.

The plan will also require the support of the states before it could come into effect. ACT Greens minister Shane Rattenbury was among those denouncing it on Tuesday afternoon.

There will need to be sufficient flexibility built into the policy to allow it to be tweaked, possibly even by the reintroduction of renewables subsidies, in the event the market does its own sums and decides that without them wind and solar just aren't worth the time or the money. Killing off the emerging renewables industry at a time when it is starting to show great potential would be a disastrous outcome of the attempt to reign in energy prices.