The renewable energy target is "one big punt" that gets "less bang for more buck", a Nationals senator believes.
Matt Canavan, who has been sitting in on a parliamentary inquiry into wind farms, says renewable energy - particularly wind - is not only expensive, it creates more international than Australian jobs.
He believes subsidising the industry with measures such as the RET is a gamble and won't necessarily result in cheap clean energy.
"They're effectively taking one big punt that some forms of renewable energy will come down like manna from heaven in the future and become cheaper," he told the Senate.
"The renewable energy target gets less bang for more buck."
A bill to cut the target from 41,000 gigawatt hours to 33,000 - a bipartisan deal reached after a year of political stalemate - reached the Senate on Monday.
Labor won't support the inclusion of native forest waste burning as a renewable energy source under the scheme, which requires 20 per cent of energy to come from clean sources by 2020.
The inclusion of wood waste is also opposed by the Greens, who have circulated four amendments in the Senate.
Along with retaining the original target, the Greens want states to be able to create their own renewable energy certificate schemes.
"We need to ensure that (Prime Minister) Tony Abbott's vendetta against renewables does not impact on clean energy vision and ambition in states and territories," Greens Senator Larissa Waters said on Monday.
The introduction of the legislation comes after the prime minister launched an attack on wind farms, declaring them ugly and boasting he had slashed the RET as much as the Senate would allow.
Mr Abbott has previously declared coal "good for humanity".
Several opposition and Greens senators quoted Mr Abbott during upper house debate on Monday, saying his comments proved his contempt for the clean energy industry.
The government spruiks the RET internationally as part of its tool kit to slash carbon emissions.
A Senate committee inquiry into wind farms has heard evidence from people living in the vicinity of wind turbines. The residents said the structures caused them to become ill..
However, the National Health and Medical Research Council found there was no "convincing evidence" of negative health impacts from wind farms and the Australian Medical Association says any illness is likely to have come from anxiety.
The Greens believe the Abbott government is ignoring a public shift towards clean energy.
The year-long political stalemate over the Howard-government policy stalled renewable energy investment and cost jobs.
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