MUSWELLBROOK mayor, Steve Reynolds, is calling for a genuine focus on future employment in the region as the nation awaits a return to the polls.

Coal royalties should be used to fund a Hunter Region transition program of up to $105 million a year for 25 years, Professor Phillip O'Neill says.

The recent announcements that the Hunter's coal-fired power stations will close by the end of the decade mean the region can not wait any longer to begin the massive task of transitioning to a clean energy economy.

When white man first laid eyes on what is now Newcastle, more than 2 centuries ago, the first thing he noticed was rich seams of black marking the area's towering yellow and pink sandstone headlands: coal.

Origin Energy’s decision to bring forward the closure of its Eraring coal-fired power station – NSW’s largest – reflects the reality of a 21st-century power grid, and 21st-century economics.

Tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has teamed up with international fund manager Brookfield to launch an audacious takeover bid for Australian energy giant AGL with the intention of setting stronger emissions-reduction targets and forcing the early closures of its remaining coal-fired power stations.

Eraring, the country’s largest coal-fired power station, will shut in three years, but transition plans for employees, communities – and the grid – are lacking

Angus Taylor has warned Origin Energy’s early closure of NSW’s Eraring coal plant could result in more expensive power bills.

The early closure of Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station in 2025 will test the energy grid and management of the inevitable transition from coal as these plants become uneconomic to operate.

Offshore wind farms, pumped hydro, and large scale battery storage are among more than $100 billion of private investment interest registered for a Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).

The two plants selected for early shutdown currently produce about 7% of Australia’s total carbon emissions

AGL Energy has conceded it may accelerate closure dates for two of Australia’s biggest coal plants again depending on market conditions.

The federal government has given the environmental green light to a $600m power plant at Kurri Kurri in NSW’s Hunter Valley, days after Labor did an about-face on its calls to halt the project.

Labor will support the Kurri Kurri gas plant in the NSW Hunter region if it wins government, with an important caveat.  The party wants Snowy Hydro Limited to run the plant on 30 per cent green hydrogen, increasing to 100 per cent by 2030.

The Conversation: Monday 17th January 2022

As the world shifts to renewable energy, helping the communities that have depended on fossil fuels for jobs is becoming ever more pressing.

Nearly 40 per cent of Australia’s coal-fired generation capacity will shut down by 2030, including the equivalent of three medium-sized power plants closing earlier than planned, under the greenhouse gas emission cuts promised by both major parties.

Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) and AGL Energy (AGL) have agreed to undertake a feasibility study to repurpose infrastructure at the Hunter Valley’s Liddell and Bayswater coal-fired power stations to generate green hydrogen from water, using renewable energy.

Australia’s biggest polluter AGL Energy has struck a deal with iron ore billionaire and green hydrogen evangelist Andrew Forrest to turn its Hunter Valley coal fired power stations into a major renewable hydrogen and industrial hub.

The clock is ticking on the Hunter's golden opportunity to reinvent itself as a thriving hydrogen economy, NSW Treasurer Matt Kean believes.

Idemitsu Australia (IA) is proud to partner with Port of Newcastle Operations Pty Ltd (PON) and Macquarie Group’s Green Investment Group — a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed to jointly study the feasibility of export and bunkering of green hydrogen and ammonia at Port of Newcastle, Australia.

It is 17,335 kilometres from Glasgow to the brown-coal-powered electricity generators of Morwell in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. But they have never felt closer.

For more than a century, Muswellbrook Coal Mine has been the source of millions of tonnes of fuel for the world's coal-fired power stations. That legacy will end next year when the mine comes to the end of its working life, resulting in the loss of 150 jobs in the Upper Hunter.

Hunter industry groups have welcomed the State Government's hydrogen strategy but warned there is no time to lose if the region is to fulfil its potential as a national clean energy powerhouse.

Dominic Perrottet has signed off on Australia’s largest hydrogen strategy in his first major cabinet decision as Premier, in a move that will see green hydrogen jobs in NSW outstrip those in the coal industry by 2050.

Australia’s fleet of coal-fired power stations face early closure due to rampant growth in renewables in a fast-paced move that piles pressure on achieving an orderly transition to clean energy, a blueprint by transmission giant TransGrid shows.

Automation emerges as new frontier in coal jobs debate. The promise of jobs and royalties lies at the heart of the social contract between coal towns and mining companies.

Blueprint Institute report says ‘coal adaption authorities’ would provide income insurance and early retirement packages as fossil fuel demand wanes

China's decision to stop funding overseas coal projects represented a potential threat to the Hunter's multi-billion dollar coal export industry, NSW Environment and Energy Minister Matt Kean said.

In a move designed to bolster Beijing’s climate credentials, President Xi Jinping of China said on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) that his country would stop building coal-burning power plants overseas, ending its support for construction projects that rely on the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel.

AGL Energy’s embattled board has been dealt a humiliating defeat over an activist climate resolution proposed at its annual meeting that further ramps up pressure on emissions reduction ahead of its controversial demerger.

The federal government has declared the Hunter as one of seven national hydrogen hubs that will supercharge the development of a multi-billion dollar export industry.

The future of the Upper Hunter is "highly uncertain" and urgent action is needed if the region is to avoid the worst social and economic impacts of the coal market's decline, an internal State Government-commissioned report has warned.

Up to 80 workers at New South Wales' largest coal mine have been ordered by BHP to accept transfers to interstate mines or resign from their positions.

Exclusive: At least nine mines have received special permission from regulators allowing them to avoid penalties. Promised environmental offsets for new and expanded coalmines in New South Wales have been delayed for years because governments have allowed companies to push back deadlines for protecting sites for conservation.

The United Nations’ top climate official has urged Australia to have a “more honest and rational conversation” about urgently abandoning coal power, which he said was in the nation’s and the world’s best interests.

Work to create a hydrogen hub in the Hunter will be accelerated with the establishment of a collaboration platform to bring together potential hydrogen producers and users.

EVEN the big rise in global coal prices has not been enough to stop a river of red ink through BHP's Mount Arthur coalmine in the company's annual results for the year to June 30.

Mining giant BHP would pay a bidder about $275 million to take the biggest coal mine in NSW off its hands even as prices of the fossil fuel soar to levels not seen since 2008.

The NSW government should work to remove barriers preventing the development of a container terminal by the Port of Newcastle, a parliamentary committee into the sustainability of the state's energy supply and resources has recommended.

"Longstanding coal communities, like those in the Hunter and Illawarra regions, have powered our state for a long time. Lack of planning and economic diversification by government has delayed the energy transition, at a great cost to their health, and the environment.

The country’s biggest electricity user is aiming to switch to a predominantly renewable power supply in 2029 in a groundbreaking move that would dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of one of NSW’s largest carbon emitters.

BlackRock and other major financial institutions are working on plans to accelerate the closure of coal-fired power plants in Asia in a bid to phase out the use of the worst man-made contributors to climate change.

Mining companies will be forced to show plans for the ongoing rehabilitation of their mines and to report on their progress as the NSW government moves to tighten rules around environmental management.

The global move away from fossil fuels will cost two in three workers their jobs across regions such as the Hunter Valley and central Queensland over the next three decades, according to a report that argues the impact will be even worse without investor support for a fair transition.

Wind and solar have set new production records in Australia’s main grid, for average generation over a quarter, record output in a single interval, and a record renewable energy share of 57 per cent in one interval in April.