AGL must guarantee commitments that it made in 2017 to fully rehabilitate its power station sites are honoured by PrimeCo, the new corporate entity set up to manage the company’s dirty energy assets.
In its 2017 Rehabilitation Report, AGL committed $898 million for the rehabilitation of the Bayswater and Liddell sites in the Hunter Valley. [1]
“The transfer of these power stations to a new corporate entity poses a risk to the Hunter Valley community if rehabilitation falls between the cracks during the transfer,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.
“AGL has made billions from these highly polluting facilities. Taxpayers must not be left on the hook to pay for the clean-up when the shutters go down on these facilities.
“We call on AGL to explain what mechanisms it will use to guarantee the new company honours existing commitments.
“AGL must also confirm there will be no forced redundancies for power station workers as a result of the demerger.”
Mr Gambian said the corporate restructure that divides AGL’s energy assets into “dirty” and “clean” energy companies did nothing to reduce its climate impact.
“AGL is the nation’s dirtiest climate polluter as owner of the Liddell and Bayswater coal-fired power stations in NSW and the massive Loy Yang A power station in Victoria,” Mr Gambian said.
“This restructure is a branding exercise that ignores the urgent need to reduce the total climate impact of its assets.
“This is a cynical piece of corporate spin.
“It doesn’t matter how the company structures itself or what it calls itself, the fact remains that these assets will still be doing massive harm to the climate and must close sooner rather than later.”
References
[1] Rehabilitation: AGL’s approach to rehabilitation of power generation infrastructure, 2017