Hazelwood was privatised by Kennett in 1996 in the expectation that is was expected to be shut down in 2005.

The new owners indeed did invest money in maintenance and upgrades but it was the Bracks Government that realigned Hazelwood's mining licence and granted Environmental Effects Statement approvals to move a river and a road to grant them access to more coal than was previously agreed, so it was Labor's fault that helped it keep working 10 years past it's expected retirement date.

The EES also invoked a total C02 cap of 445 million tons for Hazelwood's lifetimeand the French company that now owns it knew about these restrictions.

If there's an energy problem it's due to the short-sightedness of all governments at all levels to plan effectively and see beyond the window of the next election.

The entire renewable project is founded on BS.

Nothing is renewable!

Just because folk think it's renewable, the energy can be, with impunity, splurged?

It is a fad and a media-oid fiction, from folk who have no idea of the energy world, they were born into.
Arty, farty, 'ring roadside assistance folk'.
Let them pay for the folly.
Why bother with cheaper and better ways?
Yup, burn the mature forest, wood pellets, imported from the US to UK furnaces, to appease folk, who want to think they are, warm, fuzzy and, 'earth safe'.
Nope, let the BS Greenies have their day and learn the hard, hard way, that, their convenient and green lifestyles, are neither green nor convenient, and VERY expensive.
Stop arguing, and let reality speak, through the experiences it dishes out. That is truth.

Get out your candles, and get ready to eat them.

Foxy,

Anyone with even the simplest grasp of statistics knows that correlation is not proof in any way without causation. I lived in Tumut for several years where the statistics on disease and disability far outstripped the national average, and possibly even Morwell, but has crystal clear air and water. On closer investigation the reason was simple. The cost of living in Tumut was a fraction of Sydney or Melbourne. As the disability allowances were not town dependent, a person on disability could live far more comfortably in Tumut. Having also spent time in Morwell, the same low cost of living applies there, and the discount trains ($12 one way) I took there from Melbourne were stocked with pensioners and the disabled.

The link you provided was written by Gregg Borschmann who is technically incompetent and clueless with respect to the concept of industrial maintenance, and repeating this inanity makes it no more valid.

The ironic part of all of this is that while we shut Hazelwood, Japan is building multiple coal fired power stations which will be burning our coal.

Apparently if it's not burned here it's ok. Go figure, we loose a 1000+ jobs so our greenies can feel all warm and fuzzy, while our coal still gets burned.

Have we really become that stupid?

Only some of us Butch.

SM,

The company is convinced the plant is no longer viable
with environmental concerns also a factor. Hazelwood is
old and out of date and has not been maintained.
ENGIE has estimated it would cost $400 million to get
it up to safety standards. The plant's operations faced
scrutiny over a coal mine fire that burned for more than
a month in 2014 blanketing Morwell in smoke. An inquiry
found it was pollution from the fire that had contributed to
deaths in the area. Nine coal power stations have closed
in the last five years in Australia. That should tells
us a great deal.

http://www.environmentvictoria.org.au/hazelwood-faqs/