Giant Polluting Power Station Gets Government Help

Thursday, 04 September 2003 10:00

"It's a scandal, particularly when the Carr Government makes great play of its greenhouse policy credentials. The document shows that senior bureaucrats from State and Regional Development, Environment Protection Authority, Treasury, and Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources attended a two day 'media risk management workshop' in April 2003 and developed plans to counter public opposition to the 1,000MW Project Waratah coal electricity plant," said Jeff Angel, Director of the Centre.

"The confidential meeting was held just after the State Election in the offices of the NSW Department of State and Regional Development and assessed a large range of risks to the project, including environmental concerns and competition from cleaner fuels - with a view to 'controlling' the risks - through manipulation of public opinion and the media."

"We call on the Carr Government to bring the bureaucrats under control and withdraw any policy, strategic, financial or political help that the project is receiving and ban any future help,' Mr Angel said. "For the sake of the Government's greenhouse credibility, they should haul the agencies out of this carbon cesspit of a power station. They are boosting dirty power over the practical cleaner alternatives the community wants."

"The agencies and developers identified opposition by green groups as a high probability with a high risk value. Well, they certainly got that right, and we will now be even more determined to stop the biggest and dirtiest power station to be built in NSW for many decades. And we won't be falling prey to their manipulation strategies, like planting lots of trees - a dodgy and unreliable exercise," Mr Angel said.

Project Waratah is located at Ulan and is being proposed by John Holland Investment and X Strata. Start up is planned for 2007 and involves two 500MW units. It comes on top of the 150MW Redbank 2 coal station currently before the government for a decision.

"It and Redbank are contrary to the state's power supply plan which requires the use of gas, solar, wind and energy conservation. Redbank and Waratah will wreck the prospects for mainstreaming cleaner power. If we care about the environment and want to prevent a worsening of human induced climate change - neither power plant should be built. The economic and human costs of climate change are horrendous and, at a state level, we would get more jobs from the cleaner alternatives, than another power station.