The Greens are encouraging law-breaking on coal

On coal, the Greens like to pretend they are morally superior.

Greens threats of civil disobedience at suggestions a Chinese company that has built many coal-fired plants in China, Pakistan, India and Indonesia, might help build two plants in Australia, must be seen as what they are — threats to break the law.

Greens making these threats should tell us why they think they are above the law, where our power will come from if coal plants such as Liddell are not replaced by more modern plants, and why they think two coal plants in Australia should be furiously opposed when they have made no protests about similar plants being built around the world.

The Greens are not morally and intellectually superior to the rest of us, as they seem to think, but typical leftie bullies quick to offer violence if they can’t get their own way.

Doug Hurst, Chapman, ACT

Your story (“Gas price risking industry exodus”, 6/3) tells us that commercial and industrial gas users are contemplating closing down and moving their businesses overseas because of the rising cost of gas. These industries crave energy.

The story raises the obvious question about the source of energy. If these industries were getting their energy from a third-generation nuclear power plant, they would not be at the mercy of international gas prices.

There would be no pressure on gas producers to find more gas fields and to consider fracking. There would be much reduced carbon emissions. So why are we not discussing this form of energy?

Barney McCusker, Mount Gambier, SA

The fuss relating to renewables, coal, solar, wind, hydro and batteries should be canned and kicked down the road. There is really only one option to replace all of these and that is nuclear. We have abundant supplies of uranium in this county, but this resource heads overseas.

The hotly debated subject of so-called climate change would also disappear. Imagine the disappearance of the argy bargy on renewables — the country might be at peace with itself.

Mike Flanigan, Toowoomba, Qld

Janet Forbes (Letters, 6/3) is correct in calling for a study of the benefits of nuclear power for Australia. Such a study was in fact carried out in 2006 — the Switkowski report, while the 2016 South Australian royal commission effectively updated its findings. Both supported the rational consideration of nuclear power, seeing nuclear as part of Australia’s generation mix along with coal, gas and renewables.

Australia’s uranium exports, converted to electricity by customer nations, each year generate around the same amount of power as the whole of the Australian electricity supply system. Yet in Australia, alone of all OECD nations, nuclear power remains illegal.

Martin Thomas, St Ives, NSW

It isn’t the yellow-bellied politician that bothers me (Last Post, 7/3), it is the in-bred parrot. They are supposed to report all of the facts without fear or favour to allow their readers to make informed decisions holding truth to power, yet they start each day as if previously disproved facts don’t exist.

Fortunately it is not just the Chinese government that understands that it is idiocy to pursue economic growth at the cost of sacrificing the environment, so the walls are closing in on the in-bred parrot and its incessant squawking for the coal industry.

That’s the thing with reality — nothing parrots say or do can alter the flaw in their delusions.

Chris Roylance, Paddington, Qld

I am pleased to see three NSW independents holding the main parties to account on formulating plans for coal communities (“Independents demand action on coal, climate”, 7/3). I have been a coal miner for more than 25 years and, until recently, the future has been a taboo subject.

About 31 per cent of jobs in Muswellbrook come from coal mining, while in Singleton that figure is above 40 per cent. The local market is already in decline with the imminent closure of the two power stations, leaving jobs in this region increasingly at the whim of the export market.

Experience shows that the sooner plans are put in place for communities facing economic change, the better the result. The Hunter Valley has been the workhorse of NSW for more than a century. It deserves leadership that addresses the reality of what’s happening with real action to diversify our economy and prepare us for what’s to come.

Peter Kennedy, Muswellbrook, NSW