Rural communities pay price of zealots’ green energy fantasy

Nick Cater explains the missing social licence for Labor’s energy policies in many regional communities (“ ‘Engagement’ a lost cause: regions fed up with green fantasy”, 5/2). Bringing their protests to Canberra on Tuesday puts politicians on notice. It demands a serious response from Energy Minister Chris Bowen, not merely improved “engagement” and the usual platitudes.

The fundamental inequality in bargaining power is at the core of the problem. It’s understood in contracts of employment, but not so in Labor’s energy strategies. There’s a chasm between communities bearing the burden of change and the virtue-signallers, largely unaffected.

How would you react if faced with planned easements up to 200m wide and towers 70m high on your property? Accepting your home and land could be compulsorily acquired; and, if a farm, the loss of livelihood and prime agricultural land. Where’s the cost-benefit and who stands to profit and gain?

The Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone has not been approved by NSW Planning, yet processes for acquisitions are already under way. Objections lodged to the 8000 pages of technical impact statements are still in the assessment phase, with approval still months away. However, authorities and politicians, in their haste to meet the 2030 targets, assume it’s all a done deal.

Community opinion needs to be taken seriously in a rigorous planning framework, adhering to considered plans, proper process and environmental laws.

A belated and inadequate response can only lead to further erosion of trust.

Jennie George, Mollymook, NSW

Nick Cater nails it when he says our regional communities have discovered the “dirty secrets” of renewable energy that the inner-city renewables lobby prefers to ignore. These dirty secrets have been kept hidden from the average voter for the simple reason that the federal government has not been honest enough to do a comprehensive due diligence cost-benefit study of the forced transfer from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

From the takeover of prime agricultural land with the growing problem of solar panel disposal to the vast wind farm destruction of precious flora and fauna, our regional communities are increasingly suffering the consequences of the green energy fantasy.

Thankfully, the formation of the Reckless Renewables movement is giving a national voice to the dirty secrets of the renewables lobby. For the sake of the future health of our poor cousins of the bush, and indeed for Australia’s energy future, we should all support this protest against the Renew Economy push and its cashed-up, inner-city zealots.

John Bell, Heidelberg Heights, Vic

Last year, Energy Minister Chris Bowen asked Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Andrew Dyer to investigate regional pockets of stubborn resistance to renewable energy and recommend ways of getting the doubters onside. In his subsequent Community Engagement Review report, Dyer says opposition is often driven by “misinformation”, and recommends the government establish one-stop information shops to help opponents get their facts straight.

Regional communities have their facts straight. As Nick Cater states, they are experiencing first-hand the cost that the renewable energy transition is having on small and medium businesses from rising energy prices, the relentless pressure to sacrifice prime agricultural land and the destruction of huge swathes of pristine wilderness, all to accommodate Bowen’s target of installing a 7MW wind turbine every 18 hours and 22,000 solar panels a day until 2030.

Regional communities don’t need to get their facts straight. It is Bowen who needs re-educating because it is he who is hellbent on rendering Australia a food-producing, environmental and energy wasteland.

Dale Ellis, Innisfail, Qld

Your correspondent, Peter Clarke, criticises the infrastructure of renewables as “vandalism” (Letters, 5/2). What is vandalism is the continued use of fossil fuels to power our country.

It is high time for us to remove our heads from the sand, be constructive with suggestions for our continued prosperity in a rapidly decarbonising world and enjoy the immediate and future benefits that will flow.

Isabelle Henry, Ascot Vale, Vic