Friday, July 4, 2008

Draft climate change report prompts power station fears

ABC News Online, Posted Fri Jul 4, 2008 2:47pm AEST

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/04/2294800.htm

The Latrobe Valley power industry is concerned today's release of the Garnaut climate change draft report could mean the closure of power stations.

The Federal Government is expected to develop its carbon trading policy on the recommendations of the report.

Big businesses will have to buy carbon credits to cover their greenhouse gas emissions.

The chief executive officer of Loy Yang Power, Ian Nethercote, says the coal industry as a whole is not under threat.

"If they put a program in place which doesn't have provision for transitional assistance then some of the existing plant potentially won't be viable and it will see premature closure compared with where it may have originally thought to be [viable]," he said.

He says brown coal will remain the main source for Victoria's power.

"I think brown coal is still going to be a major part of the Latrobe Valley and the economy of Victoria and Australia for many, many years to come," he said.

"In fact, there are other uses for brown coal that haven't even been put in place yet, so that part of it no I see plenty of opportunity."

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