Power-plant opponents threaten boycott

Residents are threatening to boycott a power company that has been given the go-ahead to re-fire a mothballed station with coal near the shores of a Northland beach.

But state-owned Mighty River Power may find that environmental conditions imposed on the Marsden B project are so tough it can't meet them.

Laurence Berry, spokesman for the Whangarei community group, said he represented 5000 residents who would consider switching to rival power supplier Meridian Energy to force a backdown on Marsden B.

"The community has spoken really loudly in opposition to this," he said.

Greenpeace labelled the decision a "giant leap backwards".

"In this age of climate change, New Zealand does not need a great big, carbon-belching, toxin-emitting power station," said spokeswoman Vanessa Atkinson.

Mighty River Power spokesman Neil Williams said the company was pleased to get a decision but would have to read the fine print to know just how strict the conditions imposed were.

He said a rough calculation of Marsden B's obligations under the carbon tax would be around $40 million a year and the company would have to decide if that justified its investment.

A panel of commissioners, appointed by Northland Regional and Whangarei District Councils, gave the company 35-year consents for the station, originally built in the late 1970s to run on oil but never used because cheap Maui gas came online and oil became too expensive.

Mighty River Power says New Zealand's abundant coal supply has to be exploited if electricity prices are to stay down. It hopes to have the station running by 2009.

Opponents raised concerns about pollution of air, land and water.

The station will require a 50ha landfill site to dump coal ash, estimated to reach 4.2 million cubic metres of waste over 35 years.

It will discharge pollutant "particulates" - fine particles that can lodge in the lungs - as well as nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.

Green Party leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said carbon emissions from the plant would be "very high" but no carbon tax was yet in place.

Vital statistics

* Exhaust stack from station 120m high.

* 110,000-tonne, 16m-high coal stockpile the length of four rugby fields and about two-thirds of a rugby field wide.

* Record 3231 submissions, 3155 opposed.

* 320MW plant could generate up to 6 per cent of New Zealand's electricity.

* 4.2 million cu m of ash dumped over 50ha ash landfill site 1.5km northwest of the station over 35 years.