BREAZE today called on the Premier, John Brumby, to commit to replacing the Hazelwood Power Station with clean energy by 2012.

"Hazelwood is a dinosaur," said BREAZE Community Campaigner, Andrew Bray. "It's old; its the dirtiest power station in Australia and it supplies a good proportion of Ballarat's electricity. In 2010 we simply don't need to be producing this much pollution to make electricity."

Hazelwood Power Station was built between 1964 & 1971 (using 1950's technology). It was privatised by the Kennett government in 1996 and is currently 92% foreign owned by UK company International Power. It was scheduled to be decommissioned by 2005, but its life was extended by the Bracks Labor government.

"Hazelwood is one of the biggest water wallies we have. Its annual usage of 27 billion litres of water every year is more than 3 times Ballarat's entire water usage," said Mr. Bray.

"It's also a real danger to the health of people who live in the Latrobe Valley, emitting 57 million kilograms of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide."

"We commissioned a report which shows that Hazelwood can be replaced in a responsible and efficient way by 2012" said Replace Hazelwood spokesperson, Damien Lawson.

The report, Fast‐tracking Victoria's clean energy future to replace the Hazelwood Power Station, commissioned by Environment Victoria and written by energy market analysts Green Energy Markets, comes as the Federal and State Governments are searching for new climate policy measures to replace the dumped carbon pollution reduction scheme.

"By bringing forward investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency and cleaner gas-fired plants, Mr. Brumby can start cleaning up Victoria's coal-hungry electricity supply, restrict the cost to consumers and make sure the lights stay on," said Mr. Lawson.

"The report also highlights that the clean energy replacements for Hazelwood can create up to 2500 construction jobs and 2300 ongoing jobs, many more than Hazelwood currently provides, though there would still be a need to support new job creation in the Latrobe Valley.''

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ABOUT REPLACE HAZELWOOD CAMPAIGN

The Replace Hazelwood campaign is a loose coalition of twelve groups led by peak body, Environment Victoria, who are joining their efforts to help bring about the speedy end to Australia’s dirtiest power station. Other member groups include Victorian Climate Action Centre, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Alternative Technology Association, GetUp! and BREAZE.

More information – www.replacehazelwood.org.au