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March 20th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu has been labelled an “environmental vandal” for looking to expand brown coal mining in the Latrobe Valley.
The state government is seeking expressions of interest for new allocations of coal for domestic use and export to China, India and Japan.
The move has been panned by the Greens and the Victorian opposition as economically irrational and environmentally unsafe.
Federal Greens MP Adam Bandt said he was stunned.
“The premier, Ted Baillieu, is an environmental vandal and must be stopped,” the Melbourne MP told reporters in Canberra.
“I will be seeking advice as to what can be done federally to stop this environmental madness.”
The Victorian government has insisted the plan is a bid to promote investment, jobs and low emission coal.
Victorian Energy Minister Michael O’Brien said the government will undertake a market assessment on brown coal demand with China, India and Japan already expressing interest.
“Previously we have not been able to use that resource as effectively as we would have liked because of the high emission content,” Mr O’Brien told journalists on Tuesday.
“But everyday there are new technologies being proposed, being developed to use brown coal in a lower emissions way.”
Mr Baillieu said companies will provide investment in the infrastructure needed, depending on the product.
“This is .. about securing our resources, about demonstrating more emission efficient technology and making the most of our resources,” he told journalists in Melbourne.
State opposition major projects spokesman Tim Pallas slammed the plan as a job creation stunt.
Brown coal exploitation in the Latrobe Valley was decades-away with the low-emission conversion technology unproven, Mr Pallas said.
“This strategy is a long way away before it can reach fruition. It will require tens of billions of dollars to get transport links.”
The Greens also criticised federal Climate Change Minster Greg Combet for failing to condemn the plan.
Mr Combet on Tuesday said expanding coal production was “certainly a policy the Victorian government is entitled to pursue”.
Mr Combet said Labor’s carbon price, which is due to start on July 1, would provide incentives to invest in technology that would allow brown coal to be used more efficiently and with fewer emissions.
Greens deputy leader Christine Milne said it’s not good enough for Mr Combet to say that the commonwealth can’t tell the states what to do.
“The minister for climate change has an obligation to point out to the nation that we are facing catastrophic climate change unless we get away from our dependence on fossil fuels,” she said.
Victorian Greens MP Greg Barber said exporting and converting coal would cost millions and send the state’s emissions and power prices skyrocketing.
“It’s economically irrational,” he said.
The Latrobe Valley, in the state’s east, sits on more than 30 billion tonnes of brown coal.
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