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.
Read John's submission to the Minister for Planning call for the
proposals for new coal-fired power stations at Mt Piper and Bayswater
to be refused. Click here
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.
Trading Rights for Power Stations
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.
Electricity Retailers
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
15 March 2010
A shift to renewable energy could take the pressure of households
facing a surge in power prices, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
09 March 2010
Delta Electricity's trial of plantation Mallee trees as a source of fuel for Wallerawang Power Station is an admission by the NSW government's own power company that there is no future in expanding coal fired power, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
03 March 2010
The NSW government’s approval for two new giant fossil fuel power stations is based on the big lie that they are needed to keep the lights on. They will drive up the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and destroy jobs in the renewable energy industry, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
26 February 2010
The Keneally government is on the cusp of granting approval for the development two giant fossil-fuel power stations. Their response to public submissions rejects the potential for large-scale renewable energy projects in NSW.
25 February 2010
The Greens are joining with environment groups representing over
200,000 people in launching a campaign against plans to impose two new
coal fired power stations on NSW.
18 February 2010
The wheels have fallen off the Keneally government's plans to privatise
the electricity retailers and the rights to sell power from the state's
seven large coal-fired power stations, according to Greens NSW MP John
Kaye
01 February 2010
A University of Melbourne study has sounded a warning note for
vulnerable low income households in a privatised electricity market,
according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
16 January 2010
NSW taxpayers are facing a $380 million a year financial loss to fund
windfall profits for the state's aluminium industry under the Rudd
government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, thanks to fixed price
electricity supply contracts put in place by the Wran government, according
to Greens MP John Kaye.
18 January 2010
The NSW Government can take no credit for a decline in NSW's greenhouse
gas emissions, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
20 January 2010
The Keneally government's failure to guarantee cash payments under the Solar Bonus Scheme is a blow to households and a get-rich-quick racket for electricity retailers, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
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Willoughby Public Forum: Clean energy future for NSW
