21 Wolseley Parade
Kensington Vic 3031
29 January 1996








The Editor,
The Age
Fax (03)9670 7514

Dear Sir,
	   After sweeping industry reform, the Victorian electricity 
distribution industry is now fully privatised. By all accounts the 
Victorian Government got a good price for the selloff of these public 
assets. One possible reason why overseas investors found them so attractive
is that there is absolutely no requirement under existing legislation or 
licences for the utilities to address environmental issues such as 
Greenhouse gas emissions or sourcing power from renewable sources. This is 
in stark contrast to the situation in Europe and parts of North America, 
where most of the new corporate owners are based. Closer to home in New 
South Wales, the Carr government has set Greenhouse objectives and targets 
for electricity utilities who are already 30% less polluting than Victoria's. 

Australia now leads the world in terms of per-capita Greenhouse gas emissions, 
and unfortunately for Victoria, our electricity production is the dirtiest 
in Australia in this regard. Brown coal, otherwise know as lignite, is not 
only dirt cheap, it is very very dirty from the Greenhouse point of view.

Into this environment steps a large U.S corporation which can legitimately 
claim to have a much lower impact on the Greenhouse effect: Entergy 
Corporation, the new owner of CitiPOWER, is very "up front" about nuclear 
power and claims to produce 37% of its power from four of its own nuclear 
power plants. Its total U.S. generating capacity is equivalent to average 
Victorian power consumption of 4500 megawatts. 

CitiPOWER is Entergy's first foray into an electricity business outside 
the USA.  Since there is no immediate prospect of nuclear electricity 
on these shores, I urge Entergy/CitiPOWER to consider the achievable 
Greenhouse-friendly  option of continuing to source a small but increasing 
proportion of their electricity from renewables, such as wind, solar and 
biomass. My interest in this matter is not entirely altruistic, being 
heavily involved with producing wind energy (all 12 kilowatts of it!) 
from the Breamlea wind generator south of Geelong: this forms the pilot 
stage of CitiPOWER's innovative renewable energy program.

An ongoing commitment to renewables will endear CitiPOWER to many thousands 
of current and potential customers within the whole of Victoria, and 
stimulate the development of a whole new renewable power industry for the 
state.

			Yours sincerely,
                                                   
Dr Michael Gunter
Breamlea Operations Group
Alternative Technology Association