Two of the State's major conservation groups have expressed support for a Bill to be introduced into the NSW Parliament which would prevent the building of two new coal or gas fired power stations.
The Total Environment and NCC said that without John Kaye, MLC's No New Coal Power Bill 2012, which would prevent the construction of the new Bayswater B and Mt Piper Extension power stations, and the Cobbora Coal Mine to feed them - the State's greenhouse gas emissions will increase by 43 per cent and crowd out energy efficiency and renewables.
"Bayswater is one of the dirtiest power stations in the world", said TEC Executive Director Jeff Angel. "If the NSW Government was smart it would, as its owner, negotiate with the federal government to take advantage of the $2 billion allocated for the early retirement of dirty power stations under the Clean Energy Future package, rather than expand it."
"Why do we need these massively polluting new power stations anyway? Governments often say it's about 'keeping the lights on', but baseload electricity demand in NSW has fallen for the last two years, and only last week Origin Energy CEO Grant King said that there would be no need for new baseload power stations in NSW until 2020 at least.So let's focus on containing power price impacts by a big program of energy efficiency."
Pepe Clarke, CEO of the Nature Conservation Council said: "There is now more investment around the world and even in Australia going into renewables, yet NSW remains addicted to coal-fired power. NSW is still committed in theory to generating 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. If NSW doesn't generate its own renewable energy to meet this shared target, it will have to pay to import it from other states, forgoing revenue and jobs in the process."
"We are still waiting for the release of the NSW Renewable Energy Action Plan, which the government has been talking about since last year. If Bayswater B, the Mt Piper Extension and Cobbora Coal Mine are built, it won't matter what's in the plan now gathering dust in
Renewable Energy Secretary, Rob Stokes's bottom drawer."
