Wellington, Thursday 9 November:
Call To Pull The Plug On Marsden B
Greenpeace today called on the Climate Change Minister, David Parker, to pull the plug on Marsden B and on Mighty River
Power to halt its consent process for its proposed coal-fired power station.
"The Minister clearly does not want Marsden B to go ahead, and he is clearly considering a price on carbon, so he should
act now, stop the waste of public money on the consent process, and remove the axe hanging over the heads of the people
of Whangarei," said Cindy Baxter, Greenpeace campaign manager.
David Parker stated today in Parliament that he was confident there would be a price on carbon and that he doubted
Marsden B would go ahead as a result. Mighty River Power has stated that this would make the project less attractive.
Greenpeace has calculated that the average international price of carbon over the last year of $30 a tonne would mean
that Mighty River Power would have to pay $60 million a year for the 2 million tonnes of C02 that Marsden B would pump
into the atmosphere.
Greenpeace today delivered an open letter to the New Zealand Government. The letter, signed by more than 2000 people,
with at least 500 of them from Whangarei, calls for urgent action on climate change and was handed over to Mr Parker.
"The tide of public opinion has turned. Globally and in New Zealand the public is demanding action on climate change.
Now the New Zealand government must match it's fine words with real action to reduce our emissions by creating targets,
putting a price on greenhouse gas pollution and stopping Marsden B coal-fired power station," said Baxter.
The signatures on the letter were gathered in just over two days, on the Global Day of Action on climate change, on
Saturday, through climate rescue radio HeatwaveFM broadcast online at www.heatwavefm.net/.
"This number of signatories in such a short time shows the level of concern here in New Zealand over the issue," said
Keey.
In addition to David Parker, Heatwave FM interviewed Nick Smith from the National Party, Peter Dunne the leader of
United Future, Doug Woolerton from New Zealand First, Jeanette Fitzsimmons and Nandor Tanzcos from the Green Party and
Te Ururoa Flavell from the Maori Party.
Ends