Coal in Australia
Electricity privatisation - an attack on workers, an attack on the climate.
Wenny Theresia and Tim Briedis
Iemma and Costa’s plans to privatise the state electricity industry constitutes a savage attack on both workers and the climate. Despite overwhelming public opposition (70% of people oppose electricity privatisation, despite a $380,000 advertising campaign) and a sustained response from unions and ALP branches, they have expressed determination to forge on with the plans.
Privatisation would be an unmitigated disaster for real action on climate change. The plan would mean handing control of NSW’s biggest source of domestic greenhouse pollution – coal-fired power – to profit-driven corporations.
A privately-owned electricity industry will be driven to sell more energy in order to increase profits. Helping consumers to reduce energy use will just get in the way of the corporate bottom line. NSW’s coal-fired power stations already emit more than 55 million tones of CO2 each year and comprise over 35% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Privatisation will see emissions soar, further provoking dangerous levels of climate change.
Sunday July 13th - community protest to stop coal exports!
Join the peaceful community protest
When: 10am Sunday 13th July.
Where: Begin at Islington Park, march to Carrington coal terminal.
What: On 13th July, hundreds of people from across the country will take part in Ausralia’s biggest single direct action protest against coal and climate change. Please join us to be part of this historic movement.
The protest begins with a colourful rally and march, and you don’t need to be willing to be arrested to come along. We will march to Carrington coal terminal where members of the community will walk onto the coal rail line to stop coal exports in their tracks.
Newcastle's coal exports and the myth of 'clean coal'
Posted June 3rd, 2008 by squidBy Steve Phillips
Why is Climate Camp in Newcastle?
Imagine every single source of greenhouse pollution within Australia. Every power station; every deforestation operation; every farm; every car, truck, bus, plane and train – the lot of it. Over half a billion tonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide every year. Now double it. And add a bit more still. That's what happens to our climate footprint if you count our coal exports.
Australia exports more coal than any other country in the world, from a handful of ports in Queensland and two in NSW, including Newcastle – the biggest coal port in the world. The coal port at Newcastle is Australia's single biggest contribution to climate change.
Brown Coal in Latrobe Valley, Victoria
Posted June 2nd, 2008 by squidBy Louise Morris
Victorian Minister for Energy and Resources Peter Batchelor has publicly
declared that the state is 'endowed with an almost unfathomable bounty of
brown coal – a subterranean mountain estimated at 33 billion tonnes that
awaits barely scratched just beneath the Latrobe Valley floor'. It seems this is driving Victoria's overwhelming reliance on brown coal (coal that has not been underground for as long and has a high moisture content).
The obvious response is that Australia is endowed with an endless bounty of
solar and wind energy potential – resources that neither pollute nor
deplete.
Unlike NSW and other states, Victoria has a wholly domestic coal industry
based on brown coal accounting for over 89% of the state's electricity
supply. Plans are afoot to expand on this dependence on coal, with HRL Ltd working to build a 400 mega watt coal-fired power station in Victoria's Latrobe
Dirty Coal in the Sunshine State
Posted May 30th, 2008 by squidby Ellie Smith
Queensland is the biggest coal exporting state in the biggest exporting country in the world. In the financial year 2006-07 the Queensland coal industry produced 234,518,109 tonnes of coal, exporting 153,332,536 tonnes of that. By the end of 2008 Queensland’s export capacity is expected to be 230 million tonnes per annum (Mt/a). Expansion of this industry has continued virtually unopposed … until now.
Queenslanders are slowly waking up to the root causes of climate change and are realising that coal mining is unsustainable and it’s our responsibility to oppose it, whether the coal is destined for a power station in Queensland or overseas.
