News | 20th Jan, 2012

Uncertainty over future of HRL plant

Friday, 20 January 2012
Gus Goswell, ABC News

There is uncertainty over the Federal Government's commitment to a new power station planned for the Latrobe Valley.

The new power station would be fired by a combination of brown coal and gas derived from coal.

Victorian's Environment Protection Authority (EPA) partially approved the HRL Dual Gas project last year, but that decision is being challenged in VCAT.

The Howard government committed $100 million to the project, but the Gillard Government is reconsidering that pledge.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says the funding was tied to conditions that had to met by the end of last year.

Environment Victoria says 13,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Federal Government to withdraw its pledge. Read more here

HRL will not comment on whether it is confident of getting the federal funding.

The HRL group currently owns and operates the Energy Brix power station at Morwell.

That power station is one of five that are included in the Federal Governments 'contract for closure' negotiations.

The Government is aiming to secure the closure of about 2,000 megawatts of brown coal-fired energy production by 2020 as part of its carbon emissions reduction policy.

An HRL spokeswoman declined to comment on the progress of that process.

The operators of two larger Latrobe Valley power stations, Hazelwood and Yallourn, are also part of the contract for closure negotiations.

 

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