Green activists protest at Australia power plant
(Adds power station comment)
CANBERRA, May 21 (Reuters) - Environmental activists tried on Thursday to disrupt operations at an Australian power station that provides 8 percent of the country's coal-reliant electricity market, in a protest against government climate policies.
Greenpeace said the dawn protest by around 14 activists at the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria state was the latest part of an ongoing campaign to reduce Australia's carbon emissions.
"Australia is digging itself into a hole. By phasing out coal and investing in renewable energy, we can protect our environment and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs," said Greenpeace campaigner Simon Roz.
Hazelwood, in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, is a brown coal fuelled power station with a 1,600 megawatt capacity, and supplies up to 25 percent of the state's base load electricity. The station relies on brown coal from the adjacent Morwell mine.
Majority owned by the UK-based company International Power (IPR.L) and scheduled to be decommissioned by 2009 due to its excessive carbon dioxide emissions, the state government in 2005 extended its life until 2031.
A mine spokesman told Reuters the protest had "no impact whatsoever" on output and police removed the demonstrators, who chained themselves to a dormant digger with banners reading "coal - powering climate change".
Greenpeace said the station was one of the world's most polluting, producing 19 million tonnes of greenhouse gases every year, equal to the total caused by all 1.4 million households in the state capital Melbourne.
Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter, is responsible for about 1.5 percent of global carbon emissions, but is one of the highest per-capita polluters because of its reliance on coal for 80 percent of electricity needs.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently delayed by a year the start of carbon emissions trading designed to cut the country's greenhouse gas footprint, saying economic turmoil meant the regime would now begin in mid-2011. (For more on Australia's carbon emissions debate, see [ID:nSYD32519]). (Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Jerry Norton)
