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August 5, 2010
Petty misses the really big elephant in the room that the major political parties are steadfastly ignoring. This is the building of new coal fired stations that emit greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming, which in turn, help to dry out southern Australia. This is one real issue that Labor has choked on, and then run away from. Australia is in a state of policy paralysis compared to China.
Australia is moving backwards on climate change reform. Consider the plan to build a new coal power station at Morwell in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria. Though its new ''clean coal'' gasification technology would reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 36 per cent lower than the cleanest existing Victorian brown-coal power plant, the plant would still release up to 4.2 million tonnes of gas a year - increasing Victoria's annual emissions by about 3 per cent.
Its current design is also likely to breach emissions standards for new coal power plants announced in last week's state government climate change white paper. The plant's emissions would also cancel the cut in pollution achieved under a government plan to shut a quarter of the Hazelwood brown-coal station by 2014.
Now that will be a test of Victorian and federal Labor's commitment to reducing greenhouse emissions, won't it, given its risk-free politics based on focus-group-driven policies and personality issues. Labor is unwilling to fight on this issue whilst the Canberra Press Gallery are eagerly focused on leaks and manufactured scandals.
Apparently, it will go ahead if the Environment Protection Authority was satisfied it met the emissions limit for new plants - 0.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted per megawatt hour generated, which is roughly equivalent to a modern black-coal power plant.
There's no talk of a carbon tax. The politicians are not considering our future; their concern is just political survivalism over the next three years. As the Garnaut Review pointed out:
Australia has a larger interest in a strong mitigation outcome than other developed countries. We are already a hot dry country; small variations in climate are more damaging to us than to other developed countries.
The scenario of rapid climate change is still regarded as extremism in Australian policy circles!
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Labor doesn't have a credible policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It will continue to allow the power industry to build coal fired stations (protect jobs) and starve solar energy of funding.