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Wednesday 15 March 2023
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Sybils tread the (pier) boards
Picture: Yanni
THE Westernport Sybils performed in Hastings last Friday (10 March) to support Climate Action Network Australia’s day of action to call for the federal government to “safeguard our climate, not polluter profits”. Sybils member Hannah Lewis said their message “was clear, no new gas, no new oil and no dodgy offsets”. The Sybils and members of Save Westernport, Westernport Peninsula Protection Council and Extinction Rebellion said local politicians should know “that the community continues to hold government to account”. “Western Port is a precious resource with Australia’s southernmost mangrove habitat and an internationally recognised Ramsar wetland,” Lewis said. “It is a resource that must be protected for current and future generations.” Save Westernport’s vice-president, Jane Carnegie, said the groups gathered with Esso’s plant in the background because “every time Esso flares off its waste emissions we’re reminded just how dangerous and outdated its gas processing plant at Long Island Point is for residents of Hastings and the Western Port area”
Praise and protest for port plans Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au THE changing direction for future energy needs has revived plans to expand and develop the Port of Hastings. In Japan last week, state Trade Minister Tim Pallas said the Latrobe Valley-based brown coal to hydrogen project had the potential to create thousands of jobs in Victoria and “play a critical role” in reducing global emissions. The hydrogen is to be shipped to Kobe, Japan, from the Port of Hastings. Pallas’s comments followed an announcement that Japan will spend
$2.35 billion on the brown coal project, much of it earmarked for export requirements at Hastings. Just days later it was announced that the Hastings would be an “assembly port” for offshore wind generators. News of the Japanese government’s ongoing commitment to Latrobe Valley hydrogen production and its focus on building “commercial scale facilities to liquefy and ship the hydrogen” from Hastings to Japan has upset environmentalists. “I was outraged at the announcement that the hydrogen export plan is said to be going ahead despite the risk it poses to Western Port from dredging
and marine pests,” Westernport Peninsula Protection Council secretary Kerri Giles said. Save Westernport’s vice-president Jane Carnegie said the coal to hydrogen pilot project was “a sham and waste of $100 million dollars in taxpayer money; a pilot that claimed it could turn one of the dirtiest fossil fuels into a form of green energy for Japan”. Save Westernport would oppose any further development of the project at Hastings. "We want the Japanese partners to know that this project is not wanted by the communities of Western Port
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- our future is based on sustainable development and tourism and no more fossil fuels,” Carnegie said. The go-ahead for project also relies on storing carbon emissions generated in the coal-to-hydrogen in depleted Bass Strait oil and gas fields. But even if the viability of CCS (carbon capture and storage) research is proved, experts, including the CSIRO, have suggested the cost of making hydrogen through renewable electricity powered electrolysis will be competitive if not equal to brown coal by 2025. The state government is also looking to Bass Strait and Portland as sites
for wind farms. “The Victorian Renewable Energy Terminal will be established at the Port of Hastings, which has been chosen as Australia’s first assembly port to support offshore wind,” a statement released last week said. “This is subject to environmental and planning approvals. An extensive consultation process is underway. This will ensure Traditional Owners, the community and stakeholders have their say. “An independent Environment Effects Statement assessment process also needs to occur before the port is developed.” Continued Page 16
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