PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has welcomed the Victorian government’s independent review of the state’s coal development programme, and its commitment to develop a coal strategy in 2016.
Victoria’s Energy and Resources Minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said this week that the independent review would ensure that there was a strong decision-making framework around coal projects, to ensure that communities and the industry had confidence and certainty in the future.
The review of coal development programmes would include targeted consultation with industry, environmental groups and the community to create a framework for decision-making and consideration of future coal projects.
The findings would also feed into the government’s new coal policy, which would consider the economic, social and environmental factors, to give the community and industry certainty into the future.
The coal policy would be released in 2016 in order to incorporate findings from this review, the government’s climate change review and the Hazelwood mine fire inquiry recommendations.
“Major energy companies, including AGL, GDF Suez and Origin Energy, have already announced they will not be investing in new coal-fired power stations. Victoria needs to plan for this transition and the government’s independent review of coal projects, new coal policy and Renewable Energy Action Plan will help achieve that,” D’Ambrosio said.
The MCA’s executive director for its Victorian division, Megan Davidson, pointed out that the state possessed some 430-billion tonnes of brown coal, with 33-billion tonnes having been identified as economically recoverable. This represented 23% of the world’s brown coal, an endowment second only to Germany’s.
Davidson said that this resource had the potential to meet Victoria and Australia’s energy needs well into the future. At current rates of production, Victoria’s recoverable brown coal resources would last 465 years.
“Victoria’s brown coal contains low levels of ash and sulphur and is readily mined at low cost. It also fuels 86% of Victoria’s grid electricity generation and 22% of national electricity generation. It provides reliable and affordable electricity for businesses and households throughout Australia.
“It is important that the people of Victoria are able to make use of this valuable endowment beyond the continued use of brown coal for energy production.”
Davidson added that the development of a new coal policy was an important initiative and would give both the industry and Victorians certainty about the future of brown coal in the state.