News
10 August, 2026
Big turnout for Stop the Gas Plant forum
Hundreds of people have attended a community forum in Moss Vale to learn more about a proposed gas-fired power plant in the Southern Highlands Innovation Park (SHIP).
Hundreds of people have attended a community forum in Moss Vale to learn more about a proposed gas-fired power plant in the Southern Highlands Innovation Park (SHIP).
Approximately 400 people attended Sunday’s forum at the Moss Vale RSL Club – far exceeding expectations.
Speakers said it would send a clear message to the State Government that local residents don’t want a gas-fired power plant in Moss Vale – and add further pressure on the Federal Government to fast-track new standards for data centres.
While one gas-fired power plant on the site has already been approved, the application for a second is currently before the Land and Environment Court.
A third is sitting with the State Government as a State Significant Development.
Cumulatively, the three applications could make the Moss Vale plant one of the largest reciprocating gas engine power stations anywhere in the world.
It will be used to a run a private AI data centre.
Member for Whitlam Carol Berry said the turnout at Sunday’s forum “reflects how deeply the community feels about the proposal”.
She said local residents had legitimate concerns about the power plant and she would be proud to stand with them as they fight the proposal.
Mrs Berry said data centres would be an important part of the future economy but must support the transition to renewable energy.
She said fully gas-powered data centres were simply not welcome.
NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge said it would be hard to think of any other industry ramping up so rapidly with so many “in your face risks”.
He said it was happening around the country but local communities weren’t getting any benefit because foreign companies were ‘off shoring’ the profits.
Senator Shoebridge said there should be a moratorium on the construction of new data centres “until we get the protections right”.
He accused the Federal Government of “learnt helplessness” by saying ‘we can’t do anything about it’ when the global corporations building the centres had enough money to run them on renewable energy and alleviate most of the health and environmental risks.
Senator Shoebridge said New York had declared a moratorium on new data centres because a “switch had been turned”.
He said the industry had lost its social licence and in the United States at least, data centres were considered “completely politically toxic”.
He described them as “alien mushrooms” and said people in the US had simply said ‘enough is enough’.
Climate expert Dr Simon Bradshaw said data centres globally represented a “profound threat to the environment”.
We’ve had them for decades, he said, but their rapid growth has been fuelled by the demand for AI data.
Unfortunately, the need for AI data is not being driven by a critical need – so he suggested residents remain sceptical about all the claims being made by data centre developers.
Dr Bradshaw – who works for Greenpeace – said the organisation’s recommendations included a moratorium on data centre developments, binding legislated standards, real disclosure and a full assessment of requirements within human rights frameworks.
He said Greenpeace wasn’t anti-development but Australia and the rest of the world needed to take an “appropriate cautionary pause”.
“It’s a fight that absolutely can be won.”
To come: the health risks, the First Nations position and where to from here?
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