The ACT Government and the proponents of the Tuggeranong data centre have called on the Greens to ''come clean'' about their position on the project, after it emerged a Greens MLA had opposed any new fossil fuel-powered energy stations.
The concerns relate to Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur's personal submission to Professor Ross Garnaut's climate change review, commissioned by the Federal Government last year, in which she called for no new fossil fuel-powered electricity stations, among other things.
The $1 billion data centre proposal includes a gas-fired power station. Natural gas is a fossil fuel.
The Greens went into last month's election pledging to have the project relocated, citing community dissatisfaction because of the way the Government handled the site selection process. In recent weeks they have reiterated that they support the development as long as it is moved.
Chief Minister Jon Stanhope told The Canberra Times that Ms Le Couteur's submission supported concerns he had that the Greens' objection to the project was really because it was not solar-powered, and that they opposed it irrespective of where it went.
''I do wonder, and I've got no evidence for this, but in some conversations with the Greens I do believe that they have a view that a data centre should ideally be powered by solar power if one is to have one,'' Mr Stanhope said.
''I do believe some of the difficulty the Greens have gotten themselves into now in relation to the data centre is perhaps driven by the fact they have an ideological opposition to fossil fuels [being used] at all, and Caroline Le Couteur's submission to the Garnaut review would confirm that.''
Mr Stanhope said the four Greens MLAs had dug themselves into a hole by not revealing the true reason behind their opposition to the project, and now that the proponents, Technical Real Estate, had agreed to relocate it they had no choice but to support it. He urged them to do the ''honourable'' thing.
''If the Greens' position is that they support no new development of non-renewable or fossil fuel power generation, and if that is the true objection that they have to the data centre, then I think it would be honourable for them to actually indicate that.''
Technical Real Estate director Andrew Campbell said he believed the Greens were genuine when they told him they supported the project, just not the site.
The only reason the company had recently asked the Government to help it find a new site was because of threat the Greens and Liberals would scuttle the project if it proceeded near Macarthur.
''They should be upfront, they've now got four seats in the Assembly, they do represent a proportion of the ACT, and they should be honest to the people,'' Mr Campbell said.
''If they're going to stop this project in Canberra altogether then we want to know pretty quickly, because we've got a number of [expressions of interest from NSW] saying, 'Okay, we'll give you enabling legislation to do it right next door, outside the ACT. We'll throw money at you and you can do it straight away.'''
Ms Le Couteur said in a statement that the submission to the Garnaut review had been a personal one that did not represent her party's views. She accused Mr Stanhope of being mischievous.
''I made a submission to the Garnaut review as a private citizen before I was endorsed as a candidate for the ACT Greens. The Greens' approach and policies are clear: we would deal with issues such as generation of electricity for major projects such as the data centre on a case by case basis,'' Ms Le Couteur's statement said.
Greens MLA Amanda Bresnan said her party saw reducing carbon emissions as a key objective, but this would not be at the expense of development in the ACT.
''We're not anti-development, we've said that. These sorts of projects can be very good for the ACT, but it's about assessing the impacts,'' she said.
''It doesn't matter what the issue is, we will look at it on its merits. But we do need to look at climate change as an issue, and Jon Stanhope has said that himself, so I imagine he would want to no matter what the development was be assessing the climate change impacts.''
Mr Campbell said a solar-powered data centre was not feasible, and that the company's data centres which have been built in several countries were already very energy efficient.
''Based on our configuration for our data centres, we're getting a 77 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions. If someone thinks you can solar power a data centre, think again, because you would need about 240ha of solar panels, it's just totally uneconomical.''
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