DIRTY SECRET POWER BUSINESS

Wednesday, 19 May 2010 16:02

“The pressure is on for Kevin Rudd to stand up to International Power and other cynical, self-interested polluters,” said TEC director Jeff Angel.

According to the WWF the International Power company’s 45 year old Hazelwood brown coal power station is spewing out an astonishing 1.58 Mega tonnes of carbon per terawatt hours, or about 18 million big hot air balloons of carbon pollution each year, and is the most polluting of the major coal-fired power stations in the OECD.

In a confidential submission which has appeared on the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency website, International Power says it will not accept any policy that requires the National Electricity Market (NEM) to support energy efficiency because it has “the potential to destroy the value of existing investments in the generation sector.”

“The NEM has now been exposed as one of the key obstacles to energy efficiency in Australia – it’s all about energy waste so big companies can make more profits,” said Mr. Angel.

 “If Australia is to make the urgently needed move to a new, green economy, then energy efficiency must be promoted to centre-stage and fully supported by business and industry. Otherwise Australia has little chance of meeting its reduction commitment and its economic and environmental prosperity will be severely compromised.”

“Energy efficiency could save Australia $1 billion a year,” said Mr. Angel. “But International Power is trying to take this out of the pockets of average Australians by ensuring the NEM continues to support more energy consumption.”