War of words over power station
Monday, 1 November 2010
Ebonnie Lord, Latrobe Valley Express
The Greens State Member for Northern Metropolitan Region Greg Barber says under Victoria's new Climate Change Act the State Government does not have to negotiate a price with International Power Hazelwood to shut down two of its units.
Mr Barber made the comments after State Environment and Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings criticised him for not publicly supporting the government's phased closure of the power station.
Mr Barber argued the state's Environment Protection Authority (EPA) would have power under the new law to apply a licence to cap emissions of polluters so Hazelwood would be forced to shut within three years.
"Under the Climate Change Act we would not need to compensate power stations as the EPA would have a head of power to apply a licence to each polluter, and Hazelwood would obviously be the first to close,'' Mr Barber told The Express.
He said the money the State Government would give to International Power would end up going to the London Stock Exchange instead of being invested in new power industries for Victoria and the Latrobe Valley.
"The Greens have always supported switching to renewables over coal and will continue to work for the closure of Victoria's brown coal power stations,'' he said.
However, Environment Victoria, which is pushing for Hazelwood to close, and the State Government said they were yet to see a detailed plan from the Greens on how the party planned to shut Hazelwood.
Environment Victoria campaigns director Mark Wakeham said to not compensate an international company was an interesting idea put out by the Greens but more information was needed.
"Based on the details and arguments in the public domain, International Power will require some compensation but nowhere near as much as has been suggested (up to $500 million),'' Mr Wakeham said.
"The workers and the community also need to be adequately compensated.''
Mr Jennings criticised Mr Barber for failing the environment movement and accused him of refusing to back the staged closure of Hazelwood power station.
"It is clear Greens political party leader Greg Barber and the Greens political party will stop at nothing to secure a preference deal with the Liberals even if it means selling out the environment,'' Mr Jennings said.
He said while the Greens claimed they believed Hazelwood was a problem, they had consistently refused to state publicly how they thought it should be handled or set a date for its closure.
