Australian Coal-Powered Utilities Prepare Greenwash Blitzkrieg

[hatrack]

Oh, and don't forget the scare tactics, either!

"THE coal industry has been urged to correct the public perception it is an unrepentant greenhouse polluter and explain to consumers the grim realities of the life they would face without a dependable coal-fired power source.

Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane berated the industry at its annual conference yesterday for allowing the debate over the nation's future energy supply to be hijacked by a "green media machine". Mr MacFarlane said the issue had been "cleverly boiled down to a black-and-white discourse", with the coal sector painted black. "And I don't hear much of an attempt from your corner to correct what has been a ridiculous simplification of the issue," he told the Coal 21 conference in Sydney yesterday.

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Mr Macfarlane said the nation's energy future lay in a combination of renewable energy and clean coal-fired power. The Howard Government did not accept that Australia should walk away from its 300-year supply of coal and source 100per cent of its power from renewable sources, as some environmentalists had advocated.

"I implore you to start explaining exactly what that would lead to - the price increases, the cost to economic growth and jobs," he told coal producers. "Not to mention the simple fact that electricity will become an unknown, unreliable quantity, unravelling life as we know it."

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12778014%255E30417,00.html