Early in 2023, the Labor Treasurer Tim Pallas threw his Government’s support behind a new coal project for Victoria. It’s called the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) project - a project to make hydrogen out of brown coal in the Latrobe Valley and ship it overseas to Japan. It would burn enough brown coal to create up to 3.8 million tonnes of carbon emissions (the equivalent to putting another 735,000 cars on the road!).
Labor gave $50 million of taxpayer money to a pilot project for the HESC back in 2018. Then, in March 2023, Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas flew to Japan to rubber-stamp a $2.35 billion grant from the Japanese Government to bring the HESC to a commercial sized-operation.
The Labor Government is proposing that it will capture some small portion of the emissions and bury them into disused, offshore oil wells in the Gippsland Basin - but this carbon capture technology has not been proven to work at this scale anywhere in the world.
It’s a climate disaster!
Not only will this project emit millions of tonnes of emissions - but it gives brown coal in Victoria a lifeline. It extends the life of coal mining, right when we need to be phasing it out.
The next few months will be crucial in determining whether or not Labor helps to bring this new coal project to life. With the right amount of pressure and attention on this disastrous project, we can push Labor to stop it while there’s still time.
Under new Parliamentary rules, if we get 10,000 signatures, we can force Parliament to hold a special stand-alone debate on this project, and use it to heap pressure on Labor to stop supporting new coal, and focus on transitioning Victoria away from fossil fuels instead.
We know that internally, Labor are divided on this project. Some MPs and Ministers aren’t as supportive as the Treasurer. We need to heap pressure on Labor now, which is why we want to force a special debate on the project in August.
Can you be one of the 10,000 names we need to force this special Parliamentary debate? Add your name now.