Genesis to decomission Huntly coal power plant...

Genesis Energy says it has cut carbon dioxide emissions at Huntly Power Station by a third after firing up a gas turbine capable of powering Auckland.

Sounds great dosen't it?
Dosen't it?

It is important to note that moving to gas fired electricity generation is a step in the right direction, but NOT a step away from fossil fuel generated electricity and could well be a sign of things to come.

Furthermore, when the time period is 10-15 years (and more than likely its closer to 15) this indicates a move towards so-called 'clean coal' and carbon capture and storage technology, or if you want: A move towards a new public relations strategy with a view to buying time for the fossil fuel Industry. 10-15 years is an interesting time frame. Firstly, this is how long it looks like it will take for 'clean coal' technology to get up and running if it ever works at all, and it could well take longer than this.

'Clean Coal' is the coal industry's version of 'Safe nuclear waste', its a time wasting tactic similar to claims by the Nuclear Industry that they are 'on the verge of a breakthrough which would eliminate any dangers resulting from Nuclear waste'. The climate change debate follows similar lines in different regions of the world. Some countries are a few stages ahead of others and I propose that New Zealand's Coal industry is a few months behind Australia's and is now following the route that the climate change debate has taken in Oz by moving on to the next stage of excuses:clean coal is going to fix everythying and lets start exporting HEAPS more coal. The good news is that this move has largely been spurred on by consumer concern about climate change, and increased consumer knowledge of which electricity providers are still investing in fossil fuel based electricity generation,for example: GP's clean energy guide.

Last year Australia woke up to the fact that 85% of its electricity was generated from coal thanks to the efforts of the Australian environmental movement, Inconvenient truth came out, the Save Anvil Hill campaign became the "Iconic battle against the Australian coal industry" and the Australian anti-coal movement was thrust into the mainstream media on a daily basis. The coal Industry and government could no longer plead ignorance and responded by changing their rhetoric from 'Its not Happening and/or its not our fault' to the Howard government acknowledging the need for action on climate change, speaking about market based solutions which won't work and blaming China (but not actually doing anything in Australia). And with this, the coal industry announced the Technological Fix, 'Clean Coal'. Now the fight is on to debunk the myth of clean coal, to show the people of Australia that you CAN stop a coal mine and to break the Australian people's blind faith in their leader's rhetoric.

And its not just Australia, you can see these responses in practically every country in the world at one stage or another of the debate.

Heres how it goes…
1. Climate change isn't happening
2. The Three Fixes:
- The knowledge/propaganda Fix: Its happening but not because of human activity etc.
- The Technological Fix: Its our fault after all, but its ok coz we can fix it with technology
- The Market fixes: Industry self regulates / carbon trading is introduced (with lots of convenient loopholes for Industry to play with).
3. Lets export the coal instead to them savages in asia who we can blame for causing climate change coz they're trying to develop their economies in the same way we did in an attempt to react to the effects of globalisation.

So, to sum up…
- We can't let Genesis away with pretending they're doing enough to combat climate change
- We have to be ready for this next 'clean coal' stage in the debate and be ready to blow this myth out of the water as soon as it arrives on the scene.
- Watch out for the shift to massively increased coal exports in NZ, this will tie in with clean coal insofar as the coal companies will be saying
1. Its not our fault if they burn it overseas (as if they're gonna eat it or do anything els with it)
and 2. Clean coal is on the way anyway.

So, another 15 years or so of burning coal at Huntly. In the meantime Genesis are investing in so called 'Clean Coal' technology which will cost a RIDICULOUS amount of money to operate if it even works and will take at least 15 years of research and development to get off the ground, which is as scientists tell us is WAY too late to act. Remember that the nuclear industry has been telling us for over a half a century that they're on the verge of figuring out how to deal with the waste.

"The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones, the coal age won't end because we run out of coal", time to move on, think for ourselves and stop swallowing Industry propaganda. Leave the coal in the ground!

Links:

-Carbon Trading: a critical conversation on climate change, privitisation and power
http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/document/carbonDDlow.pdf

-Clean Coal: Clean Coal, whats the story?
http://www.risingtide.org.au/cleancoal

Related

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/document/carbonDDlow.pdf

http://www.risingtide.org.au/cleancoal