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- Xref: sparky misc.activism.progressive:5467 alt.activism:13722 talk.environment:3053
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ames!agate!remarque.berkeley.edu!jym
- From: Greenpeace via Jym Dyer <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,talk.environment
- Subject: NEWS: Customers Ripped Off by Mt. Piper Power Station
- Followup-To: talk.environment
- Date: 30 Jul 1992 05:24:58 GMT
- Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
- Lines: 48
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Message-ID: <Greenpeace.29Jul1992.10pmA@naughty-peahen.org>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
- Originator: jym@remarque.berkeley.edu
-
- [Greenpeace Press Release from Greenbase -- Redistribute Freely]
-
- CUSTOMERS RIPPED OFF BY MT PIPER POWER STATION: GREENPEACE
-
- CANBERRA July 20, 1992 (GP) Customers are paying more for their
- heating, light and power because of the Electricity Commission's
- insistence on opening Mt Piper power station near Lithgow next
- year, a Greenpeace international energy expert said today.
-
- Greenpeace International's Director of Energy Policy and
- Research, Stewart Boyle said international experience showed it
- was cheaper for customers and created more jobs if electricity
- utilities concentrated on cutting energy waste rather than
- continuing to pour more power into the system.
-
- "It is economically and environmentally irresponsible to open a
- new power station before cheaper and cleaner options for using
- energy more sensibly have been exhausted," said Mr Boyle.
-
- "In NSW, the cheaper and cleaner option is staring us in the face
- but is being ignored by both the State Government and the
- Electricity Commission. According to a major 1989 report to the
- Electricity Commission, there is a whole power station's worth of
- energy available from cutting energy waste at less than the cost
- of opening a new power station.
-
- "This report has now been gathering dust for three years. It's
- scandalous that customers will have to pay more than they should
- for basic services like heat, light and power simply because the
- Electricity Commission doesn't want to adopt more economical ways
- of meeting customers' needs.
-
- "NSW needs to overhaul its energy planning system so that bodies
- like the Electricity Commission won't be able to continue ripping
- their customers off in this way," Mr Boyle said.
-
- Mr Boyle is in Sydney to preview the findings of a worldwide
- study, carried out by the Stockholm Environment Institute, which
- shows that a combination of energy efficiency improvements, clean
- renewable energy technologies and some fuel switching can meet
- the energy needs of all regions of the world, including
- Australia, at the same or lower cost than continued reliance on
- fossil fuels.
-
- When operating, Mt Piper has the capacity to increase carbon
- dioxide pollution from NSW by up to eight percent at a time when
- the State is committed to reducing this pollution by 20 percent
- by the year 2005.
-