Environment Victoria has welcomed today’s delay to the Victorian Government’s proposed allocation of billions of tonnes of brown coal as good news for farmers and our environment.
The Victorian Government had been expected to announce the start of a tender process for the allocation of additional brown coal, however today announced that the next stage in the process would not go ahead until mid-2013.
The government also announced that a ‘decision to proceed to tender and to ultimately allocate the resource will be guided by the potential to secure long-term economic development, investment and employment benefits for the Latrobe Valley and Victoria’.
Environment Victoria’s Safe Climate Campaigner Victoria McKenzie-McHarg said today:
“It’s good to hear that the Victorian Government is delaying allocation of additional brown coal at this stage.
“A similar allocation process undertaken in 2002 by the previous government completely failed to generate any new jobs or investment in Victoria, and instead created windfall profits for private companies.
“It was a poor outcome for Victorians then, and it would be ridiculous for the Baillieu Government to replay that mistake all over again when the warning signals are clear.
“A recent report has shown that a new coal allocation is unnecessary and would not provide the economic benefits to the state that coal companies have been claiming.
“If the government is serious about securing long-term economic development for the state and the Latrobe Valley, they’ll leave the brown coal in the ground and get serious about investing in the development of clean energy technologies instead,” said Ms. McKenzie-McHarg.
For further information or comment contact:
Victoria McKenzie-McHarg, Environment Victoria: 0428 480 409
Read the Report Undermined or Overburdened? Victoria’s brown coal: an economic perspective. >