Hunter Power Project (Kurri Kurri Power Station)

The Gloucester Knitting Nannas Against Gas & Greed wish to register their objection to this project.
We object to it on environment grounds, and do not believe we should be continuing to use fossil fuels, but should be using renewable energy, and would remind you that the NSW Government has made a commitment to the use of renewable energy. Gas is a fossil fuel and should NOT be considered a transition fuel.
There is currently no approved timeframe for the pipeline that is supposed to bring the gas to Kurri Kurri, and the strong opposition to this pipeline could mean it may never be built. The suggestion that the power plant would run on diesel for 6 months in 2023 before the pipeline is complete and for 150 hours each year ongoing is totally unacceptable on environmental grounds.
This proposal will not provide jobs for the local area, with only 10 jobs anticipated, and in fact it is likely that there would actually be far more job losses in other areas if it goes ahead.
We contend that this power plant is unnecessary, given that it is proposed that it will only operate for 2% of the time, or 1 week a year.
The Gloucester KNAG believe public funds should not be used for proposals such as this, and in particular this power plant based on outdated technology. The owners of the Power Plant are shown as Hydro Aluminium Kurri Kurri Pty Ltd, and we do not believe $600m of public funds should be used for a private corporation. This public money would be put to much better use if it were spent on health, education, aged care, etc. etc.
We respectfully request that you reject this proposal.

This project is simply a political stunt to prop up the Federal Government's so called gas led recovery. There is absolutely no economic benefit to taxpayers to justify the cost of building it. There is no need to build it, a supply of gas to run it is not available, if built it would operate so infrequently its output would be insignificant, any operation of it would contribute to global warming, ongoing job opportunities would be minimal, local air pollution would increase, particularly when diesel fuel is used.
The project must be refused approval.

Letter has been revised and the reference to amended EIS corrected.

This makes no economic sense when the writing is on the table regarding the use of fossil fuels! The huge budget that is destined for this would be better spent on boosting renewable energy sources and the storage of renewable energy such as wind and solar. As a tax payer of 50yrs this is not where I want my tax dollars spent.

Please see attached document outlining my reasons for objecting

Please see attached document.

Hunter Water Corporation has received a Preliminary Servicing Advice Application from the Proponent and provided the attached response dated 16 October 2020. The Proponent will need to submit a Development Application to Hunter Water when Development Approval is issued. Hunter Water Corporation will then serve a notice to the Proponent specifying the Corporations Development requirements. These requirements will include and water and/or wastewater network upgrades that may be required to be delivered by the Proponent to provide network capacity to service the proposed Development. When the Corporation is satisfied these requirements have been met a Compliance Certificate will be issued for the proposed Development and connection to the Corporations water and wastewater networks will be permitted. Hunter Water Corporation requests that the Department include a condition of consent requiring the Proponent to obtain a Compliance Certificate under Section 50 of the Hunter Water act 1991.

HNSW ACH advice attached.

See attached letter.

I am the mother of two young children. I am deeply concerned about the environmental impacts of the proposed project, its contribution to climate change, and what this will mean for my children's future health and wellbeing. At a time when the International Energy Agency is saying that all new fossil fuel projects must immediately cease to limit the impact of climate devastation, it flies in the face of common sense and morality for this project to proceed. I further understand that it is not economically viable and will create minimal ongoing jobs, meaning it will not support a so-called "gas-led recovery" as touted.

Please read the attachments provided. Thanks.

The Lane Cove coal and gas watch group ( group of over 100 supporters) objects to the the new proposed gas power plant.
The IEA recently said there should be no more fossil fuel projects, this is in line with what climate scientists have been saying for some time now.
Although the new gas plant is purported to support more renewables into the system, there are many cleaner and more sustainable ways to do this. e.g. battery technology. Arena and the AEC have both said we do not need so much new supply. Many peaking plants are not used when supply is low. We would be better with a good Virtual power plant system in place.
It has been claimed by the federal government that the East coast will have a gas shortage, and has been a reason to promote fracking and the Narrabri CSG proposal. Gas is still presently used in much of our industry; surely burning it for electricity, when there are so many alternatives, would appear to be a waste of our 'precious' gas reserves.
There is no gas in Kurri Kurri. Will a pipe-line be built? who will pay for that. It will run on deisel for several months or longer at first. Could this be extended? Diesel is the dirtiest form of producing electricity. This will pollute the air for local residents, and be disastrous for our GHG emissions. It is also extremely expensive and bound to push up prices.

I have lived in Australia all my life and I believe that Australians can be the leaders in the future energy sector. I am also a concerned parent who is worried about the health and safety of my young child. I worry that he won't have the security, health and opportunities for a good life that I have if we keep treating the earth with disrepect and like it is an endless magical pudding.
I oppose this project for many reasons.This kurri kurri power station proposal is not required, it's uneconomical and not feasible. The assessments have found that the gas plant will only run for short periods of time and will only produce a few jobs every year. It will not bring prices down either and it's actually more expensive than renewables. It's a very expensive project for very little gain.
I oppose this project for many reasons. It will impact air quality and consequently the health and wellbeing of local families and the Hunter community. It's incompatible with climate targets of NSW zero by 2050 and will have significant environmental impacts.
The NSW government has a duty of care to look after the young people's future and there is a clear negative link between fossil fuel projects and the health of future Australians.
There are better and cleaner alternatives for future energy projects.

I object personally and as a parent on behalf of my children who will carry the debt of these unnecessary infrastructure in their lifetimes. It goes against climate targets, makes no economic sense. It is unbelievable that this is going ahead, when there are so many options for jobs in the renewable space. We know it wont meet targets of the Net Zero Stage Plan 1, when Kurri-Kurri will emit 500,000 tCO2e . “If we want to reach net zero by 2050 we do not need any more investments in new oil, gas and coal projects.” International Energy Agency, May 2021. Other countries are moving away from oil gas and coal projects, so why are we still investing? And I feel the future children, will seriously question why this happened and call for accountability and crimes against the environment, when people knew better. I hope you re-consider.

I strongly oppose the building of any new gas projects in NSW. The recent report of the International Energy Agency has advised that investment in gas or oil at this point will risk any chance Australia has of meeting its Paris Climate goals. We have the means and to expand battery backed renewable energy and become a world leader in this field. Australia must show that it is not a mining quarry and beholden to the interests of fossil fuel companies.

(Note: A formatted version of this is in the attachment)

Submission: Hunter Valley Project (Kurri Kurri Power Station)

By Simon Validzic




To whom it may concern:

I am writing to ask the Government of New South Wales to publicly reject the gas-fired power station that is proposed for Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley.

It is necessary to reject this socially and ecologically unacceptable gas-fired power station for its direct and indirect negative impacts on indigenous peoples and the local community, native plant and animal species, the environment and climate.

Most people who publicly oppose this project will state reasons regarding climate change, the cost of the project, and the fact that it creates so few jobs. Despite its high cost of 600 million AUD (Australian Dollars), the project will only create 10 jobs and it is a waste of public money. We all know that natural gas is a greenhouse gas when it escapes unburnt as is the carbon dioxide that is formed when natural gas is burned. Escaped natural gas and the products of combustion are also harmful to human health.

I would like to draw attention to the destruction that takes place due to the drilling for natural gas. In order to get to the gas fields, forests and other natural ecosystems are destroyed and plants and native animals get killed. Most important of all, sites that are important to indigenous peoples get destroyed.

The gas for this power plant could come from Santos’ proposed Narrabri coal seam gas project and be delivered via the proposed Hunter Gas Pipeline, which is slated to run across prime agricultural land from southern Queensland to Newcastle in New South Wales via Narrabri, with a proposed offshoot to the Kurri Kurri site. Both the Narrabri Gas Project and the Hunter Gas Pipeline face overwhelming opposition from Traditional Owners and local farmers.

Traditional Owners from many Nations have come together to put an end to the ongoing threat of fracking on their countries, which will denigrate and desecrate their lands. Traditional Owners hold Native Title and Land Rights - a system that is meant to protect and enforce their rights. For years, Traditional Owners have been told lies by the gas and oil corporations - that there would be no damage to the country or toxins in their waters. These companies will not even answer the most basic of questions - where they plan to drill or how many wells they want to build.

The gas corporations lack any respect for Traditional Owners. They have failed to follow proper process in consultation with Traditional Owners, failed to acquire consent, failed to provide transparency in their dealings with them, and have systematically excluded the voices of Traditional Owners from the decision-making process for activities on their Country. All this undermines the land rights of Traditional Owners.

The size of Aboriginal land that is targeted for fracking is almost twice the size of Tasmania. It would be environmentally catastrophic and go against the stated wishes of Traditional Owners, who are anxious that sacred and culturally important sites are at risk of destruction.

Link to a campaign on behalf of Traditional Owners against gas drilling in the Northern Territory:

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/first-nations-justice-campaigns/sign-the-open-letter-to-end-fracking-in-the-beetaloo/unite-with-traditional-owners-against-fracking

Australia has the worst record in the world when it comes to species extinctions and is as bad as Brazil when it comes to the destruction of forests. Australia also has a high consumption of fossil fuels per person..

Gas is not a sustainable source of energy because it is also a fossil fuel, and reserves may be large but they are finite. I take this opportunity to state that not all battery technology (that is required to store electricity that is obtained using solar and wind energy) is socially or ecologically responsible because it involves lithium from South America. I hope that research in Croatia that uses sodium chloride to store energy brings results.

I lived in Australia from 1970 to 1992. Since I did not wish to be part of a country in which the large-scale destruction of natural habitats, logging of forests and extermination of native animals continue to take place and which is the result of genocide against indigenous peoples, I returned to my country of origin and encourage others to do the same. For the same reasons, I try to avoid and campaign against European imports of products that are made from raw materials that were grown or mined in South and North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. I campaign against projects in Croatia that would involve the import of coal and gas such as the expansion of a coal-fired power plant and the planned LNG terminal.

Please take consider the environment, native plant and animal species, indigenous peoples and the local community and reject this gas-fired power station project.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Validzic
Froudeova 1
10020 Zagreb-Novi Zagreb
Croatia
e-mail: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sime.validzic
Mobile telephone number: +385 91 5182229

On behalf of the Bathurst Community Climate Action Network:
We object to the proposed Kurri Kurri 660MW Gas-fired Power Station on many grounds, especially as contributing to global warming. We won’t go into all the justifications as many other submissions will surely cover those points.
We make as our main point that since the Federal Government threatened the market over Liddell coal-fired power station closure, many announcements have been made as to projects to fill the need for dispatchable energy supply, including:
350MW pumped hydro energy storage facility at the Lake Lyell, announced May 4, 2021 https://www.energyaustralia.com.au/about-us/media/news/energyaustralia-gives-green-light-australias-first-net-zero-emissions
4 MW of solar generation and 50MWh of storage in a concentrated solar and thermal storage project at Carwarp (Victoria) and Liddell, announced June 8, 2021 https://www.agl.com.au/about-agl/media-centre/asx-and-media-releases/2021/june/agl-and-raygen-join-forces-to-develop-one-of-australias-largest-renewable-energy-storage-solutions
150MW battery at Liddell, 14 August 2020 https://www.agl.com.au/about-agl/media-centre/asx-and-media-releases/2020/august/agl-gets-on-with-the-business-of-transition-with-integrated-battery-system-plan
Up to 1200MW battery at Kurri, announced 5 February, 2021 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-05/plans-unveiled-for-worlds-biggest-battery-in-hunter-valley/13124814
700MW battery at Eraring, announced 12 January, 2021 https://reneweconomy.com.au/origin-energy-plans-mammoth-700mw-big-battery-in-nsws-hunter-region-2/
100MW battery in Darlington Point, May 25, 2021 https://reneweconomy.com.au/shell-and-edify-in-landmark-big-battery-storage-deal-in-nsw/
500MW battery at Wallerawang, Jan 11, 2021 https://greatwesternbattery.com.au/
350MW battery in Latrobe Valley, announced March 9, 2021 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-10/yallourn-power-station-early-closure/13233274
There is also feasibility study on 250MW Bells Mountain pumped hydro project at Muswellbrook April 19, 2021 https://www.agl.com.au/about-agl/media-centre/asx-and-media-releases/2021/april/agl-and-idemitsu-prepare-for-next-stage-of-feasibility-on-bells-mountain
The capacity these projects would generate ensure adequate power for all situations, making the proposed Kurri Kurri 660MW Gas-fired Power Station a very expensive and completely unnecessary project.

Gas is a fossil fuel that results in large volumes of greenhouse gases being emitted in its production and use; funding this gas-fired power plant instead of investing in renewables is incompatible with climate goals.