A section of one of Australia’s busiest highways, the Princes Freeway, could be closed for at least three months – and a local coal mining operation has been partly blamed.
Following torrential rain in early February, cracks appeared in a section of the Princes Freeway in Victoria near Morwell bypass, around 150km east of Melbourne. The section of road is close to the massive Hazelwood coal mining operation that supplies coal to one of Australia’s largest and filthiest power generation facilities.
According to a report on ABC Gippsland, the north side of the mine adjacent to the highway also became unstable after the rain event and movement was detected in the mine wall.
Hazelwood is Australia’s most controversial coal mining and power generation facility and the calls for it to be closed were amplified after the event. Environment Victoria has challenged the State Government to set a firm timeline to replace Hazelwood, saying the “incident raises grave concerns about the safety of the Hazelwood mine and the viability of the ageing power station.”
Environment Victoria said the incident also raises serious questions about the proposal to build a new coal-fired power station less than a kilometre from the north wall of the mine.
According to Wikipedia, the freeway is one of the busiest sections of rural highway in Victoria, used extensively by freight and commercial vehicles and provides access to tourist attractions in central and east Gippsland.
Co-founder of national solar solutions provider Energy Matters, Max Sylvester, says the incident is just another example of the damage the coal industry wreaks.
“This could have been a life-threatening event. Decentralised power generation, such as what solar can offer, is far safer and we have the technology to really boost deployment now. All it needs is the political will.”
“Ironically, I was travelling to Mallacoota in Victoria during the long weekend after the event occurred to visit a major home solar power initiative Energy Matters has been involved with in the town. It took me two hours to get past the affected area due to the diversions and banked up traffic. Imagine the additional costs and emissions in relation to transport over the next few months while the detour is in place.”
“The incident is another example of the real cost of coal,” said Mr. Sylvester. “It is not cheap energy and never has been. The real price tag of this filthy fossil fuel is buried in tax-payer funded subsidies. The coal industry’s health impact, environmental damage and other events such as the expense associated with this road closure are also not factored in to the total cost per ton. We’ll still be paying for coal long after its final demise as a fuel for electricity generation; so the sooner we rid ourselves of it in favour of renewable energy, the better.”
