In response to the House of Representatives voting down Mark Butler’s disallowance motion to prevent $3.3 million of public money being used on a feasibility study for a new coal-fired power station at Collinsville, ACF Climate and Energy Program Manager Gavan McFadzean said:
“While Australia’s major trading partners continue to move away from fossil fuels, it beggars belief that the Morrison government will bend over backwards to further the fantasy of a new coal-fired power station in Queensland.
“Parliamentarians who are concerned about climate change should not in good conscience vote for a study into a new coal-fired power station in Australia in the 2020s.
“Coal-fired power is the past, not the future.
“To splash millions of dollars on this feasibility study during a recession is a terrible waste of public money.
“Coal-fired power will soon be uninsurable and the public will need to indemnify stations against climate risk.
“Today’s vote in the lower house is not the end of this matter. ACF calls on Senators to support Senator Larissa Waters’ motion to disallow the public grant for a study into a new coal-fired power station.
“There is no credible evidence north Queensland needs a new coal-fired power station to supply electricity.
“A recent report commissioned by ACF found renewable energy was on track to deliver more than a third of Queensland’s electricity by just 2025.”
The Australian Energy Council has said new coal fired power stations in Australia don’t stack up and their high emissions profile makes them ‘uninvestable’.
