20 April 2018
NSW Nationals leader’s calls to keep Liddell chugging on sells the regions short
Deputy Premier and NSW Nationals Leader John Barilaro has made an extraordinary intervention in the climate and energy debate by advocating compulsory government acquisition of Liddell power station to keep the facility operating beyond its 2022 scheduled closing date.
Yesterday in an interview on Sky News, Mr Barilaro said he would support a government-led acquisition of the station.
“If that doesn’t come from free will, maybe the government should consider using its powers to do so.”
“While people in NSW are fighting bushfires and heatwaves, the Acting Premier wants to throw more fuel on the fire,” Nature Conservation Council Senior Climate and Energy Campaigner Dr Brad Smith said.
“It is hard to understand why Mr Barilaro is pushing highly polluting and dangerous energy options when regional areas are on the cusp of a clean energy jobs and investment bonanza.
“He is not only undermining his own government’s climate targets, he is jeopardising the economic wellbeing of regions his party purports to represent.
“It is critical that NSW phases out coal-fired power and ramp up renewables investment as quickly as possible to ensure we do our fair share in reducing climate pollution from this sector.
“Keeping Liddell open beyond its 2022 scheduled closure sends the wrong signal to clean-energy investors and would lock in millions of tonnes of climate pollution for many more years.
“It would also be a blow to the clean-energy industry that has the potential to generate billions of dollars in investment and thousands of jobs in regional NSW.
“Last year, more than 41,000 NSW households and businesses installed solar panels. [1]
“In less than four years, the state government could easily make up the 850 MW currently generated by Liddell simply by supporting these households to install batteries.
“Clean energy and storage is by far the cheapest and fastest way to get power in to the grid.”
THE AUSTRALIAN
John Barilaro ‘bringing Bolshevism to NSW’ with Liddell plan: Shadow Energy Minister Adam Searle
OLIVIA CAISLEY
Shadow Minister for Energy Adam Searle has slammed Acting NSW Premier John Barilaro’s call to buy back the Liddell power station, likening the proposal to “bringing Bolshevism to NSW”.
Mr Searle’s comments follow Mr Barilaro’s announcement he would “absolutely” support a government-led acquisition of the Liddell power station if AGL refuses to sell the coal-fired plant.
“The Liberals and Nationals quite literally gave Liddell away for nothing and with it the right what AGL does with it,” Mr Searle said in a press release.
“Now AGL wants to invest in renewable energy it seems the state government wants to confiscate the asset like some Communist dictatorship,” Mr Searle said. “Barilaro is bringing Bolshevism to NSW.”
In an interview with Laura Jayes on Sky News this afternoon, Mr Barilaro said the government should move to forcibly acquire the station if the energy giant fails to finalise a deal.
“I think AGL really has a conflict of interest here,” Mr Barilaro said. “We know they have interest in gas and renewables, we can’t afford to see Liddell come offline in 2022.”
Mr Barilaro said it was “fine” if Liddell “wasn’t in line” with AGL’s vision as a company, but they still had a “corporate responsibility” to “unload” the asset.
When pressed whether he would support a government-led acquisition of the station, Mr Barilaro said “absolutely”.
While, Mr Barilaro praised Malcolm Turnbull for doing “a wonderful job” at getting AGL to the table, “if that fails I think there’s an obligation that this state and the broader national network isn’t undermined by about 2000 megawatts of power at a time when we know energy consumption is on the rise”.
“If that doesn’t come from free will, maybe the government should consider using its powers to do so.”
The acting premier also addressed his speech at an energy policy forum in Sydney last night, where he called for small modular reactors and a shift to nuclear energy.
Mr Barilaro told Sky News that while he was “open to all technology” that provided energy security to Australians, it was his responsibility as a leader in politics to “debunk the myths about what people think nuclear energy looks like”.
“Often the debate is about what happened in Chernobyl or Fukushima,” Mr Barilaro said. “It’s actually about small modular reactors that in the next 5 years will hit the market”.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/john-barilaro-supports-government-acquisition-of-liddell/news-story/626ad78ecdef4ee6d509925830daf952
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