Download (Control of Power Station Emissions) Bill 2008

2008
THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
SENATE
Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Amendment (Control of Power
Station Emissions) Bill 2008
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
(Circulated by authority of Senator Lyn Allison)
GENERAL OUTLINE
The purpose of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment
(Control of Power Station Emissions) Bill 2008 is to amend the Environment Protection
and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
This private senator's bill sets an emissions standard of a greenhouse gas emission
intensity threshold that any new power station must comply with by using a technology
with less than 0.6 Tonnes of CO2 equivalent per Mega Watt Hour (on a full fuel cycle
basis).
This will have the effect of focusing the efforts of industry to use coal or gas in a more
efficient and clean manner. A full fuel cycle basis is the emission-intensity at the smoke
stack and not offset through planting trees or buying carbon credits or other form of
offset. Setting this greenhouse emission intensity threshold will drive innovation and
improvements on 100 year old technology currently used in Australian coal fired power
stations.
To put this in perspective the average greenhouse intensity of NSW’s electricity between
1998 and 2003 was 1.05 TCO2 / MWh, ultra-supercritical black coal technology used at
Millmerrin Power Station in Queensland is 0.78 TCO2 / MWh, integrated Gasification
Combined Cycle (IGCC) is 0.72 TCO2 / MWh, combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) is 0.43
TCO2 / MWh – the same technology used at Swanbank - and gas fired cogeneration is
0.3 TCO2 / MWh.
Currently in Australia power stations must apply to State Environment Protection
Authorities and they must comply with State defined pollution controls. Greenhouse gas
emissions are currently not controlled. This Bill requires power station approval to be
referred to the Minister for the Environment and only approved after sufficient evidence
that the technology to be used will result in an emission standard of not more than 0.6
Tonnes of CO2-equivalent per MWh.
At such time that the power station is operating and if the emission standard is exceeded
the power station will be required to cease operation until the emissions standard can
meet the emission standard.
The coal fired power station emission standard in this bill would complement, not
interfere with, an emissions trading scheme.
Market schemes need to be supported and backed up by minimum standard, below
which activity is outlawed. If an emissions trading scheme is the incentive, then
standards are the stick and together they provide the push and the pull that is needed to
reduce carbon intensity.
This bill and the setting of minimum greenhouse emissions intensity for new power
stations is a commitment to and an unequivocal statement to investors that new power
stations must meet a minimum standard. A regulatory minimum is the insurance policy
on an emissions trading scheme. It closes the door on any temptation on going back to
the polluting clunkers that belong to the 19th century technology. It would close the door
on allowing mothballed power stations like Hazelwood in the Latrobe Valley - the worst of
the worst of the greenhouse polluters - from coming back on line.