The Queensland coal industry has learnt that the state government will ban any future coal-fired power stations and will force the state to rely more heavily on gas. Under the state's Cleaner Energy Strategy, released in May, Queensland's greenhouse gases will be cut by 30 million tonnes over 10 years, the equivalent of the emissions from 1 million cars. The policy preempts Australia's national greenhouse position at a crucial time before ratification of the Kyoto protocol, because Queensland has decided it "cannot wait for Canberra."
Premier Peter Beattie said: "Currently, Queensland’s energy is almost totally supplied from coal-fired power stations. Coal will continue to have a prominent role in our energy supply, but Queensland must strengthen its position by offering a greater diversity in cleaner energy sources.
"If we do not diversify towards cleaner energy sources, Queensland will be exposed to the full force of any economic penalties that could be imposed by a Federal Government of either political persuasion under the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse emissions or similar international agreements."
The coal industry has reacted angrily suggesting the policy is politically driven and an attempt by the government to present a green image to the world. They have good reason to suggest this: the strategy comes after government approvals for four coal-fired power stations, or another 2,800 megawatts of coal-fired power generation. In other words, Queensland policy makers made sure there was enough coal-generated baseload power available before banning licences for future coal stations.
Michael Pinnock, head of the Queensland Mining Council and joint chief executive of the Australian Coal Association, slammed the energy policy as economically naive and said it mandated one, high cost commodity, namely gas over a cheaper, more readily available commodity. Said Pinnock: "Premier Peter Beattie has said 'the core element of the strategy is ensuring Queensland has sufficienty low cost power.' If that is so, the policy is totally flawed, it can only lead to higher costs, not lower costs for the consumer."
Pinnock also said the policy appeared motivated at ensuring the viability of the $3.5 billion Papua New Guinea gas pipeline which will require millions of dollars of public money to subsidise a gas pipeline between Townsville and Gladstone and to build new gas-fuelled power generation capacity at Townsville. "QMC encourages all possible investment into the resources sector, but not when it is subsidised by the taxpayer," he said.
Pinnock added that the banning of new licences for coal-fired power stations sends an "extraordinary message to Queensland's major export customers in Asia".
Other key objectives are that electricity retailers source 13% of their power from natural gas generators and 2% from renewable sources from January 2005 which of course still leaves coal as the dominant fuel.
Meanwhile, federal government concern continues to grow over Austalia's greenhouse gas emissions. New figures reportedly show Australia was 19% above 1990 levels by 1998. Industrial and electricity emissions alone rose 26% over the same time.
Environment Minister, Senator Robert Hill has been lobbying for a greenhouse "trigger" which would give the Federal Government veto power over major projects emitting more than 500,000 tonnes of carbon a year. In late May, in an apparent attempt by Hill to address Australia's coal-fired electricity related emissions, he suggested to Cabinet that the Kogan Creek $1 billion coal-fired power station in Queensland be forced to offset its own emissions with greenhouse-abating investments
The Australian Bureau of Resource Economics (ABARE) has released a report called Australian energy: market developments and projections to 2014-15, which predicts that the percentage of electricity used in Australia deriving from coal will slip from 42% to 32.4%, while the share accounted for by natural gas will rise from 18% to nearly 30%.
