Nature Conservation Council: Leaked report should be the nail in the coffin for Liddell power station

The Federal Government must rule out spending $300 million on extending the life of Liddell power station for just three years. The station is due to close in 2023 but Energy Minister Angus Taylor is pushing to keep the station open until 2026.

Sky News revealed today that a draft report by federal and state bureaucrats found extending the life of half of the plant by three years would cost $300 million and that AGL did not want to pay.

“Liddell is a dud and should shut by its use-by date in 2023, or even sooner,” Nature Conservation Council Campaigns Director Brad Smith said.

“If the government is going to spend $300 million on energy, it should invest in pumped hydro and batteries, not extending the life of dirty old clunker like Liddell.“Keeping the station open would not only be an obscene waste of taxpayers’ money.

It would add more than 12 million tonnes of carbon pollution to the atmosphere and the draft report found it make the grid more unstable.“There is no reason to spend millions polluting our climate when we have cleaner ways to power our state.

Instead of obsessing about coal, there are 21 storage projects that are ready to roll in NSW that the Federal Government should expedite funding for.” [2]

References
[1] Liddell power station 'to cost taxpayers $300 million'
[2] NSW Emerging Energy Program shortlist