Natural Science Forum / Earth Science / Meteorology / July 2008

Switching off Victoria

July 06, 2008

It's utterly unbelievable that the Rudd Government should be
contemplating making bankrupt the stations that provide more than 90 per
cent of Victoria's power:

Although careful to respect the Federal Government's process, Victorian
Energy Minister Peter Batchelor appears increasingly nervous in his
public comments. Asked if one of the state's brown coal generators will
be forced to close prematurely, he said: "It depends on the nature of
the emissions trading scheme (introduced)."

If it's one like Garnaut actually recommends - with no compensation to
power stations for wiping billions off their value - the generators are
cactus. And here is Kevin Rudd's modus operandi writ large and
destructive: process over purpose. What possible good could there be to
cause such an economic catastrophe in this state?

But Rudd's guru has a solution of the kind the Soviet Union would have
suggested:

In his report, Professor Garnaut said $1 billion to $2 billion of the
emissions trading scheme proceeds should be invested in clean coal
technologies, matched dollar for dollar by the companies. If clean coal
worked, he said, the Latrobe Valley would heave a "prosperous and
expansive future". If it didn't, money from the scheme should be used to
help retrain workers and to help the valley community survive the brave
new world of zero emissions.

Hey, let the Government spend a couple of billion of taxpayers' money,
and another couple of billion of the bosses', on a yet-to-be proved
"solution" many experts say is pie in the sky. And then, $4 billion
later, let's give the unemployed some handouts.

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hing_off_victoria/