Climate Action Merribek: people in Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner and Glenroy wanting action on climate change

Stop Stop HRL! It’s getting hot in here (so switch off all your coal!)

May 22, 2011 at 6:37 pm morelandclimategroup Leave a comment

Here at Climate Action Moreland for the last year or so we’ve been fighting against the new coal fired power station planned for Victoria. The HRL power station is named after HRL Ltd, the company that will build it (who said coal companies lacked imagination?). It’s billed as ‘clean coal’ but in fact will be no cleaner than other black coal fired power stations. Every year of its life it will fill Victoria’s atmoshpere with millions of tonnes of pollution.

Climate Action Moreland have written submissions, sent emails, attended community briefings and put our case that instead of more coal we need to be switching immediately to renewable energy.

So imagine our dismay when last Friday, the Environment Protection Authority gave the green light to start work on a new coal fired power station for Victoria. The HRL power station will cause million tonnes of pollution, impact the health of local residents and divert public and private money away from clean renewable energy projects.

We know that if there is enough community opposition to this project, investors – and the government – will think twice about backing it. Which is why we need you there on Tuesday.

Say no! to new coal fired power station
Stop HRL Rally, 12.45pm, Tuesday 24 May 2011
Parliament House Steps

Don’t stand by and let Victoria build another coal fired power station.

Things you can do to help the campaign:
1. Call some friends & ask them to come to the rally.
2. Forward this e-mail to your networks.
3. Share the rally event invitation on Facebook.
4. Tweet about the rally with the hashtag #StopHRL
5. Call your state and federal member of Parliament to ask that they
withdraw funding from the project.

Quick facts about the new HRL power station:
1. it’s supposedly ‘clean coal technology’ because it uses coal to make synthetic gas. Problem is this synthetic gas still creates the same emissions as black coal – and as we know coal is the world’s most polluting energy source.
2. HRL Limited, the company that’s building this power station, is rated in the top 50 of Australia’s polluting companies.
3. The HRL power station has been given a $100 million dollar grant by the Federal government, and $50 million by the State government to develop this technology.
4. Projected costs for building the HRL power station have blown out from $750 million to a whopping $1.8 billion. By our back of the envelope calculations this amount could easily pay for renewable energy of the same generating capacity.
5. The four major banks have already said that they won’t invest in HRL – Westpac because the technology is too dirty.
6. It will be located near the town of Morwell in the La Trobe valley, worsening health problems caused by the other coal fired stations in the area.
7. The power station will be imported from China partially constructed – meaning that there will be few new jobs created.

Entry filed under: Event.