Politicians to blame for Hazelwood shut-down and mass sackings

The closure of the Hazelwood coal-fired power station in the La Trobe Valley is a direct result of incompetent politicians.Closure was always on the cards once Victoria's power generating system was privatised by Jeff Kennet. Technology has been available to clean carbon emissions from the power plant. Environmental Auditor, Phil Westwood from Grantville said "Liquefaction processes with primary and secondary hydrogenation cleans up brown coal to produce a fuel which burns with virtually no ash or other residues as particulates. Various pilot projects have been run here, in Japan, China the UK and South Africa, in fact South Africa operates a commercial plant. If the system was perfected in Australia it would have massive potential for export earnings." Instead, 1000 people will lose their jobs in the La Trobe Valley and household power prices are likely to rise. An alternative would also have been to build a gas pipeline to the power station. Gas from the Yolla field comes ashore at Kilcunda and is piped to Nyora and then into Melbourne. Why not to Hazelwood as a cleaner fuel than coal?

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