Climate Failure: Eraring Power Station to Stay Open Beyond 2025
Climate Council Media Release
The Climate Council has labelled the NSW Government’s decision to keep Australia’s largest coal-fired power station operating well past its scheduled 2025 closure date as a failure of climate leadership.
Climate Councillor and Economist Nicki Hutley said: “This decision is a triple failure: it fails policy, it fails climate leadership, and it fails to protect the health and wellbeing of communities across NSW and the nation. As NSW residents endure worsening climate impacts – like the Black Summer bushfires and last year’s Great Deluge – driven by climate pollution, the state and federal governments have failed to build enough clean energy to ensure this coal clunker closes on time.
“As a result, every NSW taxpayer will bear the financial burden of this decision, which undermines climate targets for both NSW and Australia and delays the shift to cleaner, lower cost energy.”
Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Climate Council, Dr Jennifer Rayner, said: “The science is clear: every tonne of coal burned pushes us closer to climate disaster. The latest analysis from the energy market operator shows solar, wind and storage projects in the pipeline can more than meet the electricity needs of every home and business in NSW.
“Keeping the coal fires burning at Eraring sends the wrong message when urgent action is needed to fight the climate crisis. This must never happen again – in NSW or any other state. Governments must now throw everything at accelerating the shift to renewable energy sources like wind and solar. This will create new clean energy jobs, help lower power bills and, most importantly, tackle the climate crisis.”
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5 comments
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paul walter
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Tieresias
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Ken Fabian
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GL
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Teiresiasj
Return to home pageDon’t agree. We have already suffered the consequences of shutting down power stations before an alternative is in place.
Paul.
the Coalition talked about reducing to zero-carbon, but did nothing – it is taking time to catch up’
I had heard about oil companies who knew about climate change 80-60 years go but I did not know the details until I read “Dr Karl’s Little Book of Climate Change Science” (ABC 2021).
Oil companies began investigating oil change in the 1970’s and found it was true. Around 1990 they decided to deny it. (p.11) Following are pages of science which explain climate change.
The Murdoch news pages still deny climate change.. Yet the world and Australia are affected by climate change.
People have also talked about how tobacco companies have killed people – and still are.
Find out about nuclear power and costs there.
The LibNatLab party, quietly saving Australian fossil fuels from global warming, one power station at a time! Yay. And if an independent, teal, green cross bench gets too uppity about it I expect we will see the kind of cooperation we have always wished we could see across the aisle – but only for things THEY think really matter, like saving fossil fuels. Whether their ‘consituency’ is corporate lobbyists and donors or unions at power stations our mainstream political parties won’t, no matter what, treat dealing with global warming as Duty of Care to those who’s futures they hold in trust.
We can build more than enough RE to cover Eraring’s loss well ahead of schedule… if a supposedly ambitious on climate NSW Labor party really wanted an ambitious schedule and really wants to close coal plants. Judging by actions rather than words, they do not.
Ken,
To me it still comes down to the pats on the heads, tummy rubs and delicious pollie treats of cash stuffed envelopes (and the chance of cushy lobbying jobs in the future) from the big end of town that drives our major political parties.
GL,
We have been mucked about by oil companies being supported by climate change deniers for decades.
Not much happened during the last Coalition government over nine years, despite talk of carbon-zero by mid-century. Never happened.
Frydenberg put out a budget in March 2022. Net debt was blown out by $258 billion, ranked by the IMF at 91st in the world.
Under Labor our Budget was ranked by the IMF at 24th, And we have in the last two budgets successive surpluses.
Dutton and Taylor have replied to Labor’s Budget and all they do is talk about the same old small government, lower taxes, fewer regulations and a nuclear power plan quizzed by the CSIRO.
We need to keep an eye out on what is happening.