Victoria's greenhouse policy: the moment of truth

The Victorian government is considering extending the operating life of the forty-year old Hazelwood Power Station to 2031. The power station is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia, and its brown coal allocations would run out in 2009. According to this report, the electricity that Hazelwood would produce could be generated with far lower emissions. The alternatives, mainly involving fossil fuels, could be somewhat more expensive, but the costs per tonne of avoided emissions would be modest, and could be distributed equitably within and beyond Victoria.