{"id":206031,"date":"2025-10-11T18:38:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T18:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/206031\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T18:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T18:38:17","slug":"queensland-plan-to-extend-life-of-coal-fired-power-stations-sends-mixed-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/206031\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland plan to extend life of coal-fired power stations sends ‘mixed messages’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Communities across Queensland have welcomed plans to keep coal and gas burning across the state, though some warn a lack of future planning could undermine short-term benefits.<\/p>\n

Energy Minister David Janetzki yesterday unveiled the state’s new energy road map<\/a>, placing coal and gas at its centre while leaving room for renewables such as wind, solar and pumped hydro.<\/p>\n

Queensland government unveils energy road map<\/a><\/p>\n

Queensland’s energy minister has unveiled a long-awaited road map outlining the state’s future energy needs.<\/p>\n

The plan extends the life of coal-fired power stations to 2046 and expands gas generation, including a proposed new plant in central Queensland between the Queensland Investment Corporation and the private sector.<\/p>\n

Mr Janetzki said the plan replaced the former Labor government’s 2035 coal closure plan with a “sensible and pragmatic” approach focused on economics and engineering.<\/p>\n

The Banana Shire, home to Biloela’s Callide Power Station, will see the state-owned B units extended from 2028 to at least 2031.<\/p>\n

Len Neale worked at Callide for 40 years where he saw first-hand the impact the station had on the community.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Len Neale says the extension of Callide Power Station will allow time to \u201cfigure out\u201d renewables. (ABC News: Jasmine Hines)<\/p>\n

“Even at the moment there is a big overhaul on one of the unit’s at Callide and all the motels are full,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s brought prosperity and caused industry to grow, particularly the Gladstone [heavy] industry until [the Gladstone Power Station] was up and running. And then Rockhampton. And then all of Queensland.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a key industry in the area.”<\/p>\n

Mr Neale welcomed the extension, saying it provided time to “figure out” renewables.<\/p>\n

“I’m all for renewables, but we need to get them going and settle them and figure out what we do when the wind stops blowing and the sun stops shining,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nev Ferrier says news Callide Power Station’s state-owned B units will be extended to at least 2031 “takes the pressure off”. (ABC News: Jasmine Hines)<\/p>\n

The region’s mayor, Nev Ferrier, said the town “wanted to keep the station for as long as” possible.<\/p>\n

“There are 300 people who work out there,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It takes the pressure off everybody to look for other jobs, to move families and all that stuff.<\/p>\n

“They’ll be right here for a fair while yet.”<\/p>\n

About 400 kilometres south in Yarraman, residents are equally pleased.<\/p>\n

The nearby Tarong Power Station\u2019s life has been extended from 2032 under Labor’s old plan to at least 2037.<\/p>\n

\"Power<\/p>\n

The life of Tarong Power Station has been extended to at least 2037. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Butcher Bradley Frohloff said the extension was “great” as closure would have hurt the town.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the workers live in our town. They spend money in our town. It would drastically affect a lot of businesses,” he said.<\/p>\n

Union says plan ‘fails workers’<\/p>\n

But the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) said the government’s plan failed to address what happens when coal stations eventually close and would lead to “declining regional employment”.<\/p>\n

“It fails workers with no plan for a fair transition for coal-dependent energy workers,” secretary Peter Ong said.<\/p>\n

“The government is leaving workers in limbo.<\/p>\n

“They’re shutting their eyes to reality and pretending it will go away. The energy transition is happening, with or without the LNP.”<\/p>\n

Dr Amanda Cahill from The Next Economy, an organisation that has worked with communities across the state and country to adapt to the renewable energy transition \u2014 including Gladstone \u2014 is equally as critical.<\/p>\n

“This is going to create a whole lot of confusion at the community level, particularly when we’ve seen the government-owned corporation’s leading the conversations on the need to transition away from coal,” Dr Cahill said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Amanda Cahill says the plan sends “a whole lot of mixed messages”. (ABC Capricornia: Tobi Loftus)<\/p>\n

“There has been a lot of internal discussions with workers on what sort of support they need to retrain or move into other industries, so this is sending a whole lot of mixed messages to people that is going to be quite problematic.<\/p>\n

“It really doesn’t make a lot of sense from an economic and technical point of view. The current coal-fired power stations are costing millions every year in maintenance.”<\/p>\n

Call for support for transition to renewables<\/p>\n

Further north, Isaac Region Mayor Kelly Vea Vea welcomed the coal plan but urged more support for renewable infrastructure.<\/p>\n

She said regions needed better support for housing, roads, water and waste to accommodate renewable projects.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Kelly Vea Vea says there needs to be more support to accommodate renewable projects in the regions. (ABC News: Lucy Loram)<\/p>\n

“We know in the regions we have a responsibility when it comes to the energy transformation, but we don’t think communities like ours should have to pay the price,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to be able to have the support from government when it comes to enabling infrastructure and a social licence framework that is respected by industry.”<\/p>\n

Back in Biloela, Len Neale said he was thankful for Callide’s longer life, as it gave people “extra time” to adjust to the energy transition.<\/p>\n

“Biloela has supported the state and the country for many years, through agriculture, mining and electricity production,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s the country’s turn to look after Biloela now.”<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Jasmine Hines, Katrina Beavan and Dan McCray<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Communities across Queensland have welcomed plans to keep coal and gas burning across the state, though some warn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,122752,19165,127700,125908,127702,11053,44,125661,94,701,127701,15878],"class_list":["post-206031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-callide-power-station","tag-coal","tag-coal-fired-power-stations","tag-david-janetzki","tag-energy-road-map","tag-gas","tag-news","tag-power-stations","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-energy-plan","tag-queensland-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}