A $4.6 billion plant will make ammonia ‘the fuel of the future’ at its existing site by producing nitrogen-rich ammonia from air
A $4.6 billion plant will make ammonia “the fuel of the future” at its existing site by producing nitrogen-rich ammonia from air.
The project includes the construction of a new ammonia facility in Melbourne and the acquisition of an existing ammonia storage and fuel plant at Morwell in Brisbane, both of which it says will create 60 new jobs, create annual revenue of $250 million, and add more than $500,000 to average household incomes.
The Federal Government has committed $13 million towards the plant’s construction.
But the project faces opposition from environmentalists and an anti-coal campaign that has threatened the plant’s future.
Tendai Mootoo, chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Coalition for Energy Security, says Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have never been exposed to the technology needed to make the project work.
“It is in the interest of the people of Victoria as a whole and more specifically Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and that is a project that we need to get on with,” he said.
Mr Mootoo said he was disturbed to learn that the Government had funded “an enormous industrial project” in his electorate, which would directly employ people who were still working in the region, rather than building the long-term economic opportunities he said Aboriginal people were looking for.
“The people of Melbourne will be the losers in this, because I have not seen any real solution. I have not seen any real solution for what we need in this country, which is to create jobs, to create the opportunity for people to be able to contribute to the nation instead of having to contribute to the nation out of their jobs,” he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews, Federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg and Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin have all said they are supporting the plant.
But