[Greens-Media] Clean coal announcement is industry con job

[John Kaye]

Clean coal announcement is industry con job
 
Media Release: 27 June 2007
 
Greens NSW MP and energy spokesperson John Kaye today dismissed the
coal industry's supposed $400 million investment in clean coal
research.
 
Dr Kaye said: “Spending crumbs from a rich man’s table on a technology
that may never work is no solution to global warming.
 
"The coal industry thinks we can't divide by ten. 
 
“Their supposed $400 million contribution to clean coal research is
over ten years. In reality it is only $40 million a year which for an
industry the size of coal mining is nothing but crumbs.
 
"The 20 cents per tonne levy amounts to less than 0.3% of the sale
price of coal.
 
“The coal corporations would hardly notice the levy. It would be buried
in the day to day fluctuations in the sale price of coal.
 
“Mark O’Neill is surely being ironic when he says that if this is a
public relations exercise, it’s a very expensive one.
 
“For an industry that produces more than $9.5 billion worth of export
coal each year, $40 million is a very cheap down payment on securing the
myth that coal is about to be clean.
 
“The industry is trying to buy its way out of trouble.
 
“None of the serious clean coal technologies have ever been
demonstrated to work on a commercial scale. Even the most enthusiastic
proponents say that it would take more than a decade to make a reality
out of the idea of carbon capture and storage – burying the carbon
dioxide from power stations underground.   
 
“What is needed to solve this state’s greenhouse gas emissions crisis
is serious investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency,” Dr
Kaye said. 
 
 
 
For more information:John Kaye 0407 195 455 
 
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John Kaye
Greens member of the NSW Parliament
phone: (02) 9230 2668
fax: (02) 9230 2586
mobile: 0407 195 455
email: John.Kaye at parliament.nsw.gov.au
 
mail: Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000