[Greens-Media] Generators concede 'clean coal' dreams fading fast: Budget must focus on real alternatives

[Hollo, Tim (Sen C. Milne)]

Generators concede 'clean coal' dreams fading fast: Budget must focus on
real alternatives

Hobart, Tuesday 8 April 2008  Australian Greens climate change
spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne, today called on the Rudd
Government to focus its Budget priorities on existing climate solutions
such as energy efficiency and renewable energy as the National
Generators Forum joins those wavering on coal geosequestration.

Senator Milne said "The window dressing for the coal industry is now in
tatters. Comments from John Boshier on the 7.30 Report last night, that
coal with geosequestration is failing to live up to the industry's hype
are yet another warning to Governments banking on "clean" coal and
failing to prioritise the real, clean alternatives of energy efficiency
and renewable energy.

"Mr Boshier echoed concerns that cost and timeline blowouts are deeply
troubling, with little progress in years. In recent years, renewable
energy technologies have been moving in leaps and bounds, increasing
their efficiency, reducing costs and developing better energy storage
technologies, whereas "clean" coal has stagnated."

"Mr Boshier also raised the fundamental problem that we would need to
find enough ideal sites to store at least 200 million tonnes of CO2
every year in Australia alone. That is a mammoth engineering problem and
could easily lead to the use of less-than-ideal storage sites,
increasing the risk of leakage which would render the whole exercise
pointless.

"What Mr Boshier did not note is that, even if the technology did show
promise, the polluter pays principle tells us that the companies that
have profited from polluting for so long should be the ones to shoulder
the burden of cleaning up their act, not the taxpayer.

"The coal sector is old, polluting and well entrenched. Even if climate
change were not an issue, it would be outrageous that our governments
add billions every year to the coffers of the rich multinational
corporations that run the sector. When you add climate change
considerations to the mix, ongoing fossil fuel subsidies become one of
the most perverse and destructive government decisions imaginable.

"With the Rudd Government searching for budgetary savings, surely
subsidies to rich and polluting corporations should be the very first
place to start, rather than further undermining scientific research by
cutting the CSIRO's budget.

"The Greens have proposed that a portion of the billions that would be
saved by cutting fossil fuel subsidies should be channelled towards
further research, development and commercialisation of renewable energy
and energy efficiency technologies through a Sun Fund, and to pay for
the early stages of a systematic and systemic retrofit of Australia's
housing stock for energy efficiency set out in our EASI policy.

"I will be watching the Government's first Budget carefully to see if
its priorities follow Martin Ferguson's industry-fuelled hype, or a
sensible, realistic path to clean energy."


Tim Hollo
Media and Communications Adviser
Senator Christine Milne
+61 (0)2 6277 3063
+61 (0) 437 587 562
www.christinemilne.org.au

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