No New Coal Power - No Electricty Privatisation

TAKE ACTION TODAY - - Send the Premier your 'No New Coal Power" message

Join the campaign for NO NEW COAL POWER IN NSW

The Greens have launched a campaign to stop new coal-power in NSW. Join the Greens and environment and climate action groups around NSW to help create a clean energy future:

• Collect signatures on the petition calling for a prohibition on new-coal fired power stations and a plan to phase out existing coal power in NSW. Send signed petitions back to John's office by 18 February 2010.

• Download the new flyer or contact John's office on 92302668 and we will send some to you. Check out the campaign tools page.
• Write to or visit you local state MP to express your opposition to new coal power and privatisation
• Write to the Premier to demand a prohibition on new coal-fired power stations and a publicly-owned, sustainable energy future. Use our online campaign page to send the Premier your 'No New Coal Power' message.
  
• Call you local talkback radio

What's up for sale

Power station development sites
The Rees government has lodged plans with itself for new coal or gas powered baseload electricity generation at three sites:

• 2000 MW next to Mt Piper Power Station, near Lithgow
• 2000 MW next to Bayswater in the Upper Hunter
• 700 MW redevelopment at Munmorah on the Central Coast

 New coal fired power plants operating on these sites would produce at least 30 million tonnes of CO2 each year. This would be an 18.6% increase in the state’s emissions, or the equivalent of 7 million new cars on the road.

Joe Tripodi is trying to privatise the right to sell the energy generated by the state-owned power stations for periods of twenty years. Under his plan the buyers will be given complete operational control over the generators.

Private owners will end up determining who works in power stations, how much energy they produce and how they are maintained. For two decades, the people of NSW will lose control over 37% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and the source of 90% of the state’s electricity.

The retailing arms of state-owned Energy Australia, Integral Energy, and Country Energy sell electricity to 94% of NSW consumers. In other states and countries where privatisation has occurred, customer service has deteriorated and household electricity bills have skyrocketed. Jobs have been slashed and sent offshore. Corporate owners have no incentive to help customers conserve electricity and become more energy efficient. The more power they sell the more money they make.

Privatisation will be an environmental and economic disaster for NSW

Electricity privatisation and new coal power will mean

• Massive increase in greenhouse gas emissions
• Household power bills will rise as shareholder profits override the community’s interests
• Huge job loses in the electricity retailers and at the state-owned power stations
• Retailers and traders will try to push up energy consumption to boost profits
• Customer service will deteriorate and consumer protections will be undermined

Vision for a green energy future

Public ownership of the electricity industry gives NSW a unique opportunity to become a world leader in the transition to renewable energy and energy efficiency. Slashing emissions would create thousands of new, high quality, unionised jobs.

The Greens support:

• Massive public investment in large-scale renewable power projects such as solar thermal generators and wind turbines that will secure energy supplies for the next fifty years.
• Publicly-owned retailers working with households to cut consumption and reduce bills, including assistance to low income families and individuals to purchase more energy efficient appliances and save power.
• A just transition to renewable energy to deliver new, high quality, unionised, sustainable jobs, particularly in areas dependent on polluting industries.
• Smart electricity grids that can manage energy demand to reduce power bills for consumers and save billions of dollars in investment in new distribution wires and poles.
• Subsidies for small-scale renewable energy systems including feed-in tariffs to help households and communities become a major part of the green energy revolution.

Recent news