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Five years ago, who thought that energy and how we produce it would become the most important issue we face? Ten years ago we didn’t even know where electricity came from. How many of us ever gave a thought to the relationship between our energy use and our environment.

"For too long, we have failed to give a value to our climate. We have failed to put a price on pollution. We have overlooked the Earth’s atmosphere with regard to greenhouse gases with no accountability for what happens next." - Senator Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change, 2008

MYTHS

We don’t use much energy. We don’t produce many greenhouse gases in energy production. A lot of the energy that we do use comes from clean sources like wind and solar.

FACTS

Australia has one of the highest rates of greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the world, and Victoria has the highest rate in Australia. It’s official we are the world champions of - pollution. We are the worst when we need to be the best.

How did this happen? How did we become world champs? Blame our coal: we are cursed with an abundance of brown coal in Victoria. Our minister for energy and resources – Mr Batchelor – says that we are ‘blessed’ with brown coal. Politicians are strange creatures.

Burning brown coal for energy is one of the most polluting activities you can do. In fact, the polluting Hazelwood power station in the La Trobe Valley emits 17 million tons of carbon every year – the worst rate in the developed world.

On top of that, the burning of brown coal in power stations around the state is responsible for 60% of Victoria’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

The fact that our government sees the worst polluting facility in the world as a blessing is interesting. It's like saying we are blessed with the world’s largest deposit of asbestos. It’s like saying that not having seat belts in a fast car full of teenagers is a blessing. Politicians are weird, they love to sell Victoria to faceless foreign multinationals as a place to do business with cheap power and cheap water, much as you want, come to Victoria!

Victorians have taken been the quickest to switch to greenpower (electricity from clean sources) with more than 15% of households making the switch. But we're about to be overtaken! Queensland is hot on our heels and is predicted to become the state with the highest share of green power customers by 2010! In the spirit of inter-state rivalry, we urge all Victorians to do their bit to keep the greenpower crown down here! Sign up today!

"Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it." - Mark Twain

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