EXPOSING DEVELOPERS WHO FAIL TO APPRECIATE AND RESPECT COMMUNITY, ENVIRONMENT AND SPIRIT OF THE LAND

HAZELWOOD COAL: AN INDUSTRIAL DINOSAUR

Sep 3 2007: Climate Protest Shuts Down Power Station

Who are International Power?

Link to International Power website

Hazelwood tops international list of dirty power stations click here

Hazelwood is the industrial world'smost greenhouse polluting power station, per unit of energy. Now Victoria is faced with the proposition of expanding the life of this dinosaur by five years. If approved the expansion would perpetuate Victoria's reputation as Australia's worst greenhouse polluting state and totally wipe out the greenhouse savings made by other Bracks Government policies.

Hazelwood in the foreground, located in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, with Hazelwood dam on the right. Loy Yang B, in the distance is 70% controlled by International Power.

Approximate location of Hazelwood Coal on the Australian mainland (in yellow).

REPRIEVED BY STATE GOVERNMENT? ACCORDING TO THE AGE 14/2/05; "THE STATE GOVERNMENT WILL ALLOW AUSTRALIA'S WORST GREENHOUSE POLLUTING POWER STATION TO OPERATE FOR ANOTHER 20 YEARS. THE DECISON WAS MADE BEFORE FINDINGS ON ITS ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT HAVE BEEN PROPERLY ASSESSED. . . "HAZELWOOD WILL CONTINUE THROUGH TO 2031" ENERGY MINISTER THEO THEOPHANOUS SAID. . . HAZELWOOD WAS BUILT IN THE 1960S. IT IS THE STATE'S OLDEST POWER PLANT AND PRODUCES 18 PER CENT OF VICTORIA'S ENERGY. FOR EVERY MEGAWATT IT GENERATES, HAZELWOOD PRODUCES ABOUT 1.54 TONNES OF GREENHOUSE GAS"

Recently approved mine expansion at Hazelwood could see the existing open cut double in size.

Victoria rates as the worst greenhouse polluting state in Australia per person and also boasts the country's most greenhouse intensive power station, Hazelwood in the Latrobe Valley.

Before the State Electricity Commission (SEC) was privatised Hazelwood, which relies on out-dated technology, was set to be scrapped. Now Victoria is faced with the proposition of expanding the life of this dinosaur by five years.

The Bracks government must refuse approval for the expansion of Hazelwood because it:

*would emit an extra 85 million tonnes (Mt) of greenhouse pollution - akin to putting 20 million cars onto Victorian roads for one year;

*would wipe out all of the greenhouse savings made by other Bracks Government policies;

*would not create a single job;

*is not needed for Victoria's energy supply;

*discourages new investment in renewables, energy efficiency and gas;

*flouts the views of the voting public who overwhelmingly supported environmental policies at the last election;

The expansion would perpetuate Victoria's reputation as Australia's worst greenhouse polluting state.

What is proposed for Hazelwood?

When Hazelwood power station was sold the effective brown coal reserves in the mining license were sufficient to operate the plant until 2022.

International Power, the UK-based company that owns 92% of Hazelwood and recorded a $236 million profit in Australia last year, now wants to extend Hazelwood's life until 2027.

It also wants to;

*relocate the Strzelecki Highway, the Morwell River, Eel-Hole Creek and Wilderness Creek.

*obtain a new brown coal mining license to extend its life.

*use coal from its current mining license for a new coal-to-diesel plant.

Photo above: Morwell River depression crossing under the Strzelecki Highway. Most of the land in this photo is planned to be mined for the Hazelwood expansion.

Why the Hazelwood expansion is a problem

Hazelwood produces more greenhouse pollution than any power station in Australia, per unit of energy.

It also relies on old, 1950's technology. So obsolete is the power station the SEC planned to shut it down in 2005.

According to the company's own 2002 Environment Report:

*Hazelwood's greenhouse gas emissions increased by more than 56% between 1996 and 2001.

*In 2001 the power station emitted more than 17.7 Mt of CO2, (which is equivalent to the greenhouse pollution produced by four million cars).

A five year expansion to the life of the power plant would therefore result in additional C02 emissions of more than 85 Mt.

This would totally wipe out the greenhouse savings made by other Bracks Government policies. The coal to diesel plant would make matters even worse. Producing and burning diesel from brown coal generates more than eight times the greenhouse pollution caused by burning 'normal' diesel.

Photo above: The Morwell River catchment, most of which in this photo, will be mined for coal under the current Hazelwood expansion plans. The Haunted Hills are in the background, most of which are now under plantations and owned by the US insurance firm John Hancock Financial Services. Wilderness Creek flows from the Haunted Hills.

Photo above: Hazelwood Pondage. An artificial dam located south of Hazelwood power station. Hazelwood Pondage is sourced from cooling water recycled through the power station (sourced from Blue Rock Dam?), geothermal bore water pumped from the Morwell River Open Cut and rainwater runoff.

Hazelwood tops international list of dirty power stations - July 13, 2005

(http://www.wwf.org.au/News_and_information/News_room/View_news/223)

Victoria's outdates Hazelwood power station is the most polluting of all power stations operating in the world's major industrialised countries.

WWF has collected data on large-scale coal-fired power stations from 30 industrialised countries including Australia, Europe and the US.

The 40-year-old power station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley spews out an astonishing 1.58 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every month.

Hazelwood produces more carbon dioxide per unit of electricity delivered than the dirtiest coal-fired power stations in other leading industrialised nations - including the USA, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Japan and Italy.

Hazelwood is owned by UK company International Power and was built in 1964 using technology from the 1950s.

"In many ways Australia can be regarded as a modern country that plays a leading role among industrialised nations but not when it comes to electricity generation," says WWF-Australia Climate Change campaign manager Anna Reynolds.

Despite receiving a $500 million upgrade over the past eight years, pollution from Hazelwood increased by 2.7 per cent between 1998 and 2004, according to a study by Environment Victoria (Greenhouse Pollution Intensity in the Victorian Brown Coal Industry).

Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are building up in the atmosphere and causing a dramatic increase in the Earth's temperature.

Currently power stations are the world's biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions - yet in Australia their emissions are still not substantially regulated.

"Greenhouse gas pollution from coal-fired power stations like Hazelwood is driving global warming," Anna says.

"What this means for Victoria and much of southern Australia is that the climate will become drier with huge pressure on water supplies and endangered species." The Victorian Government has stated its intention to reduce the State's greenhouse gas emissions by up to 8.3 megatonnes a year by 2012.

Yet deliberations are currently being held to decide whether to extend the life of Australia's - and one of the world's - most polluting power station to 2031.

The additional pollution this would cause (an estimated 340 million tonnes of carbon dioxide) is the equivalent to putting an extra eight million new cars on the road. . .