Abetz queried on coal stance

TASMANIAN Liberal Senator Eric Abetz has denied his membership of a group pushing for coal-fired power stations undermines the State Government’s ambition for Tasmania to be the “battery of the nation”.

Senator Abetz is a member of a new Coalition group alongside Tony Abbott and Kevin Andrews known as the Monash Forum, which is pushing for a $2 billion, high energy-low emissions, coal-fired power station.

The State Government and Hydro Tasmania want to develop up to 15 pumped Hydro sites in the state and export surplus electricity to the mainland via a second Bass Strait interconnector.

On radio yesterday, Senator Abetz denied that an extra coal-fired power station would mean the Hydro 2.0 energy plan would not be needed.

“I think Hydro 2.0 will continue to be examined ... the only potential possible reason [that it would not], and I don’t foresee it, is that Hydro 2.0 would be so much more expensive than the coal-fired power station and that they couldn’t sell the energy,” he said.

Senator Abetz also said Tasmania was fortunate because it had hydro electric generation.

“On the mainland we need cheap electricity and we need sustainable electricity,” he said.

“One extra coal-fired power station in Australia would make no difference to the world environment but would make a world of difference to energy prices, household budgets, manufacturing and to jobs.”

State Energy Minister Guy Barnett said membership of the forum was a matter for the senators, adding: “The Hodgman Government has a plan to be 100 per cent self-sufficient [and] Hydro Tasmania is working to progress the ‘battery of the nation’ project to increase Tasmania’s hydrogeneration output, and TasNetworks is working with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency on a feasibility study and business case for a second Bass Strait interconnector to export more of our clean energy to the National Energy Market.”

Labor Energy spokesman Mark Butler said the formation of the “hard Right” action group exemplified the chaos of Coalition energy policy.

Mr Butler also said Snowy Hydro had recently confirmed in Senate estimates that a new coal-fired power station would make Snowy 2.0 unviable.