| Sourced From |
PREMIER John Brumby has exposed Julia Gillard over climate change by unveiling an ambitious plan that would require hundreds of millions of dollars in federal support and – eventually – a national carbon price.
The state government climate change white paper, released Monday, includes a plan to close a quarter of Australia’s ”dirtiest” power station, the Hazelwood brown-coal plant in the Latrobe Valley, by 2014.
The Hazelwood plan is integral to a proposed legislated target of cutting Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions to at least 20 per cent below 2000 levels this decade.
But the target is likely to depend on federal action – initially money to compensate Hazelwood’s owner, International Power, and eventually an emissions trading scheme.
Mr Brumby said the state had held initial discussions with International Power, but a staged closure of Hazelwood would have to be a partnership with the federal government.
Asked if Ms Gillard – who was his chief of staff in the 1990s when he was in opposition – had ”squibbed it” by delaying action on climate change until after receiving advice from a citizens’ assembly, the Premier declined to respond directly, but said: ”We’re a state government, we’re a strong economy in our own right and we’ve taken a decision as a government to move forward with this today.
”The reality is that the world is moving to a carbon price
Related posts: