Ned K.
In another shift further to the right, this time on climate change policy, the Labor Government announced in early September 2012 that it would not set aside $2 billion towards closure of the biggest brown coal fired power stations.
On top of this, the government blatantly said it would continue with its policy of giving the power stations $5.5 billion in financial support for the next five years.
The politically moderate Australian Conservation Foundation condemned the government decision. In an interview reported in the Australian Financial Review on 6 September, the Foundation is quoted as saying, “Closing our dirtiest coal fired power stations was a central plank of the Clean Energy Future package. If these dirty old clunkers are not shut down, the companies that own them certainly don’t deserve $5.5 billion in handouts from the tax payer for nothing.”
One of the brown coal fired plants affected is the Playford Power Station at Port Augusta, owned by Alinta. Under pressure from a strong community campaign to build a solar thermal power station to replace the coal fired power stations at Port Augusta (see below), Alinta has been waiting for both federal and state governments to show support for such a development.
Now that the federal government has revealed it will not financially support the closure of the Playford plant, there is little likelihood that the solar thermal plant will go ahead. Alinta, like most multinational corporations, will only invest where it gets financial support from the government.
While the government continues on a path of free market solutions for action on climate change, one has to ask the question – is there any hope for avoiding catastrophic climate change while the world is dominated by imperialism in all its different political manifestations across the globe?
The answer is proving to be “No”.
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