Doctors want brown coal stopped
Hundreds of doctors and medical professionals are calling on the Victorian government to retire the Latrobe Valley's brown coal power plants because of the health concerns.
The open letter launched this week demands the state government develop a plan to retire the power plants, arguing that local communities will continue to suffer is renewable options are not pursued.
The group Doctors for the Environment Australia says that the transition away from brown coal-fired power – which is currently used for 85 per cent of Victoria's power – must be accelerated, before pollution responsible for local disease pose an even greater health risk.
The letter has been released in the lead up to Victoria’s promised state renewable energy plan.
Dr John Iser, state chair of Doctors for the Environment and a former gastroenterologist, says the government’s work so far has been “commendable”, but many are “getting fed up with the lack of action” and are ready to move on from “paper planning”.
Recently-leaked economic modelling appears to show the Andrews government looking at options to ease “barriers to exit” for coal plants from the oversupplied energy market, including policy options like emissions or age standards for power plants, trading schemes and even a levy on coal royalties.
None of the options have been publicly supported by the government.
The letter concedes that just shutting down the power plants would also bring its own negative health effects from job losses and social upheaval, but it says there must be a way for the the Latrobe Valley community to find an “economically just and planned” transition away from coal.