[Greens-Media] MARK PARNELL MLC: Roxby Greenwash Goes Overboard

[Greens]

Media Release
5 April 2007

Roxby Greenwash Goes Overboard

Responding to the story in today's Advertiser, Greens MLC Mark Parnell
said:

"Picking cost saving measures out of an energy guzzling project, and
saying 'look, we're green', is like picking out the lettuce in a
hamburger and saying 'look, isn't this healthy'.

"No amount of Mike Rann green wash will hide the fact that the Roxby
expansion will massively increase the state's greenhouse pollution at
exactly the same time the world's climate change experts are saying we
need to make deep cuts.

"With the Roxby expansion project in its current form, South Australia
is set to under-mine the world's climate change response," Mark Parnell
said.

BHP Billiton spokesman Roger Higgins has reportedly said cost saving
co-generation facilities 'could' save 80 megawatts out of the 500
megawatts the expansion needs.

"That still means that the expansion will use significantly more
electricity than every household in Adelaide combined. If every single
Adelaide resident permanently switched off every light, every fridge,
every TV, every air conditioner and every other appliance in their home,
our state will be no better off. 

"And that's not even taking into account the fuel from the hundreds of
massive trucks working non-stop for 50 years, the building of the plant,
or the energy intensive desalination plant.  

"There is an extraordinary opportunity for this project to spin-off a
vibrant, permanent renewable energy industry for our state - a legacy
that will last beyond short-term mining royalties.  Premier Rann needs
to make a choice, before the expansion is approved, between 'business as
usual' and true climate change leadership.  

"With a price on carbon a question of 'if' not 'when', our state risks
being left with a huge carbon black-hole, as we become the greenhouse
dump for one of the world's richest companies," he said.



For further comment contact Craig Wilkins on 0434 007 893 
 




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