Malcolm Turnbull has thrown down the gauntlet to Tony Abbott ahead of a critical internal battle on energy policy, declaring “ideology and idiocy” cannot determine the resolution of the national energy guarantee.

The prime minister let fly with the barb in parliament after being asked by Labor’s Mark Butler about Abbott’s publicly expressed objections to the Neg, including his recent declarations that power price reductions forecast under the scheme are unbelievable.

Pointing to the broad stakeholder endorsement for the Neg, Turnbull declared in response to Butler’s question: “The honourable member knows very well what happens when you allow ideology and idiocy to take charge of energy policy.”

Abbott threw his hands up in the air in response to Turnbull’s comment, which came ahead of a meeting by the government’s backbench committee on environment and energy on Monday night to consider the commonwealth components of the scheme.

Later, on the ABC, Abbott responded with a barb of his own. “Idiocy is doing more of the same and expecting a different result,” he said.

“We have massively increased renewables and what have we got? We have a doubling of price. We’ve got blackouts and rationing now routine.”

“If you want to increase renewables even more, that is to say unreliable power, from the current 17% to 36%, we are going to get more of the same”.

In a message crafted for any wavering government colleagues, Abbott declared during the interview on 7.30 that any attempt by Turnbull to “ram this through the party room tomorrow, to try to make us sign up to what is essentially the state Labor premier’s energy policy, would be dead wrong.”

The next 24 hours are critical to the fate of the policy. Turnbull and the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, are battling an overt wrecking campaign from Abbott and the former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce – as well as private pushback from other Nationals, including junior frontbencher Keith Pitt, who government sources say met the prime minister on Monday.

The backbench committee has been summoned to a meeting in the cabinet room on Monday night to run the ruler over legislation that will be presented to the Coalition party room at their regular meeting on Tuesday.

Abbott joined the backbench committee as a voting member on Tuesday, and Turnbull and the Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, will attend the session. The committee will also be briefed by members of the Energy Security Board.

With the critical deliberations looming, views inside the government are mixed. Some predict Tuesday’s conversation will go along the lines of previous internal discussions – majority support from MPs with a loud pocket of minority dissent. Other MPs see this final conversation as much more fraught, because it involves a final sign-off for the scheme.

The chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Rod Sims, was called in to brief Nationals on Monday about his recent report on how to reduce electricity prices, which the government will also respond to in concert with the Neg. Sims is also likely to brief Liberals on Tuesday.

Ahead of Monday’s briefing for the Nationals, Joyce declared voters had no interest in lowering emissions, they only cared about prices. “People in the Kmart, in the local pub, they don’t care about the Paris commitment, it means nothing to them,” Joyce told reporters.

Fellow National, the resources minister Matt Canavan, said it was important to resolve the government response to the ACCC report, including a recommendation about the government underwriting new investments in firm power generation, because more supply would put downward pressure on prices.

Canavan said he had spoken to potential investors, who he wouldn’t name, who believed the ACCC’s recommendation would drive new coal investment in Australia, even though Sims has said repeatedly the recommendation is technology neutral, and wasn’t framed with an objective of bringing more coal into the market.

The resources minister said finalising the Neg and responding to the ACCC report would attract new investment into the market.

But he refused to rebuke Abbott and Joyce for their public campaigning against the policy. “I’m never going to to be one who objects to my colleagues expressing their opinions, particularly my backbench colleagues, that’s something I cherish I think as part of the Coalition – that we give our members of parliament the freedom to reflect the views of their constituents,” Canavan told Sky News.

Abbott defended his role in the internal fracas on Monday night, declaring he had not undermined the prime minister, he had pursued his right to raise concern about government policy. “There has been no leaking, there has been no briefing against the government”.

Frydenberg hoped last Friday to emerge from deliberations with his state and territory colleagues with a clear in-principle sign-off on the Neg mechanism, but his colleagues refused to play ball.

They allowed further discussions to continue, but declined the federal minister clear endorsement. In the event the Coalition party room signs off on the commonwealth’s emissions reduction components of the scheme on Tuesday, Frydenberg will go back to his Coag energy council colleagues on Tuesday night to seek their support for the release of complimentary legislation required in the state parliaments to enact the scheme.

Even if both hurdles are cleared by close of business on Tuesday, a final process of determination on the Neg won’t happen before September – and possibly not for months.

Separately in the Senate, the Greens are pursuing the modelling underpinning the scheme. The Senate on Tuesday passed a motion directing the government to release the modelling that forecasts a reduction in power prices. According to the terms of the motion, the material must be released on 14 August.