SPIN AND DELAY: How EnergyAustralia is undermining climate action in Victoria

By Taegen Edwards Organising Program Manager

Right now the state government is deciding Victoria’s emissions reduction targets for 2025 and 2030.[1] It’s the most important decision they’ll make on climate change this term of government, but they’re facing resistance from some powerful vested interests. So it’s time to shine a spotlight on the tactics and strategy of one of the worst offenders, EnergyAustralia.

Victoria’s emissions reduction targets will determine how fast we cut pollution and influence a whole range of other government decisions. We need to take action that meets the scale and urgency of the climate crisis, and strong targets are crucial.[2]

However EnergyAustralia is up to their old tricks, fuelling fear through the media and trying to blame the Victorian government for the inevitable closure of Yallourn[3] which, at more than 45 years old, is Australia’s most polluting and most unreliable coal-burning power station.

However EnergyAustralia is up to their old tricks, fuelling fear through the media and trying to blame the Victorian government for the inevitable closure of Yallourn
It’s disappointing, but not surprising. As the owners of Yallourn, EnergyAustralia is Australia’s second largest climate polluter, and the power they sell is some of the dirtiest in Australia.[4]

EnergyAustralia sells the most polluting power out of Australia's 'big three' retailers, due mostly to Yallourn.

That’s why, from helping to kill Australia’s carbon price to undermining Australia’s Renewable Energy Target (RET), EnergyAustralia has spent the best part of a decade delaying and weakening policies to cut pollution (see EnergyAustralia’s dirty track record here).

In that time the climate crisis has only grown more urgent, and the impacts more severe.

EnergyAustralia’s strategy = spin and delay

EnergyAustralia likes to pretend they’re taking the middle ground by publicly supporting a transition to clean energy. But they only refer to this transition occurring at some undefined point in the distant future.[5]

This is EnergyAustralia’s desperate attempt to skirt around the issue of the required speed and scale of action, as determined by the science. It’s just a different version of climate denial called ‘predatory delay’.

EnergyAustralia is in total denial about the speed and scale of action we need to address the climate crisis.Click To Tweet

In 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned we have less than 12 years to make rapid changes if we want to limit global temperature rises within a manageable (but still dangerous) range. This involves rapidly phasing out coal-burning power, which numerous studies show needs to happen by 2030.

The reality is EnergyAustralia’s position is anything but reasonable. They have spent years deliberately slowing down climate action so they can profit from business as usual. And they still want to operate Yallourn, Australia’s most polluting and unreliable coal power station, for another 13 years.

That would make Yallourn almost 60 years old! There is simply no level of realistic climate action that fits with this outrageous plan.

We commissioned leading energy analysts Reputex to model how Victoria could replace Yallourn power station by 2023. Click here to find out more.

The predictable greenwashing

EnergyAustralia’s usual response to these criticisms is to spruik their investments in clean energy.

Clean energy investment is great. But EnergyAustralia still makes most of its money burning coal and plans to do this for as long as possible, regardless of the damage this causes to our climate and health. Slick PR and green pamphlets aren’t going to change that.

What we really need is for EnergyAustralia to have a business model that is consistent with the objectives of the Paris climate agreement, and doesn’t rely on destabilising our earth’s climate.

And that means a plan for Yallourn’s closure well before 2032 and probably before 2025. It also means they need to stop trying to blame government policy for Yallourn’s closure. Because even if we weren’t facing a climate emergency, their 2032 date is utter fantasy.

Why is Yallourn’s closure before 2032 all but inevitable?

Yallourn is 45 years old, so another 13 years (2032) would make it 58 years old! Power stations were never designed to operate for that long.

This is the kind of technology being advertised as cutting edge when Yallourn was built.

The failure of old coal burners (especially in the heat when their cooling systems can’t cope) is also a major and growing risk to power supply.[6] And at 45 years old, Yallourn is already the most unreliable coal power station in Australia with 33 outages in 18 months.[7] Even according to the people that show up to work there every day, coal-burning power stations like Yallourn are “on life-support” & “clearly not going to be operating much longer”.

What’s more, the 2032 date wasn’t ever based on the ability of the power station to operate that long. It was picked because it’s when they’d run out of easily mined coal.

And it seems EnergyAustralia isn’t fooling anyone. When asked, a clear majority of people in the Latrobe Valley think Yallourn will close before 2032.

So why is EnergyAustralia still pretending Yallourn will operate for 13 more years?

If you’re a large, foreign-owned, energy corporation motivated by profits then this strategy makes sense. By persisting with a completely unrealistic 2032 closure date for Yallourn EnergyAustralia can:

1) Exert pressure on the Victorian government to implement weak targets that would allow them to squeeze a few more years of profit out of Yallourn and/or

2) Try to blame government policy when they announce Yallourn’s closure before 2032 and lobby for a massive taxpayer funded cheque as compensation (just like they did with the Gillard government, pocketing a $257,498,933 taxpayer handout under the carbon price package).

EnergyAustralia’s dirty track record

Their strategy to block action and delay climate policies that might effectively put the brakes on coal pollution has worked terrifyingly well in the past.