As part of an effort to balance the environment section of my wheel yesterday I attended  a rally, outside James Merlinos office in Belgrave as part of the July 17th National Day of Action calling for the shut down and replacing of Hazelwood Power Station in Latrobe Valley.

Hazelwood is Australia’s dirtiest power station and one of the worst in the world and around 40 people gathered outside the office of Victorian ALP Cabinet member James Merlino’s in Belgrave. Many of these people belong to local environmental groups, DRREA and EMFSUS that I am part of but there were many new faces as well.

Uniting under the call that “renewable is doable” the group demanded the closure of Hazelwood and its replacement with 100% Renewable energy as laid out in the recently released Beyond Zero Emissions Report. Its time for this privately owned carbon spewing monstrosity to go!

The event was organised by the Dandenong Ranges Renewable Energy Association. The small but spirited rally heard from two local Green Party candidates who are standing at the next State election, Samantha Dunn and Jo Tenner, who spoke about the Green’s climate policies, in particular in regards to how the Greens plan to promote renewable energy. One speaker briefly raised the issue that Hazelwood is owned by the British multi-national International Power and is demanding billions in compensation either under a shut down or future ETS. He called for a renationalisation of the power grid instead and for massive public investment in renewables. The recent report released by Beyond Zero Emissions which explains how all fossil fuel base power could be replaced by 2020 in Australia by a combination of investment in renewable and energy efficiency was also discussed .

Hazelwood Protest march

After the speakers – a short march was held down the main street of Belgrave before the group returned for a final pose in front of James Merlino’s office. A delegation from the Dandenong Ranges Renewable Energy Association will be meeting with James in the next few weeks to discuss the BZE 2020 plan with him and to try and put the heat on the ALP before the coming state election.

As we have a section in our book “The Wheel of Life’s 8 Keys to Success” about Hazelwood being the most greenhouse polluting power station in the country, (excerpt in next post) this was definitely a protest I had to get involved in.

John and Linda Ballis

For more helpful tips on balancing your life and further articles on helping your environment revisit this blog regularly, http://wheeloflifeblog.com or go to our website http://wheeloflifebook.com and purchase our book “The Wheel of Life’s 8 Keys to Success”

http://indymedia.org.au/2010/07/17/replace-hazelwood-nda-%E2%80%93-belgrave-protest

http://www.drrea.org.au/

http://www.emfsus.org.au/

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Tags: Belgrave, Beyond Zero Emissions, DRREA, Environment, Hazelwood, Hazelwood National Day of Action protest, Melbourne