As the mother of a six-year-old (amongst other roles), keen to do her “bit” to ensure the sustainability of our region in a future with less oil (and other non-renewable fuels), I was very excited to learn that the NSW Government’s Regional Development Australia Northern Inland (RDANI) was hosting a forum on the very issue I was reading about in a book called the Transition Handbook. This would surely be about the New England region’s wealth of sustainable energy sources (or so I thought!).
The New England Region, with its proposed Community Wind Farm and a tomato farm sited in Guyra because of its high number of sunny days, is wonderfully situated to develop renewable energy sources that will never run out … or impinge significantly on the other essential industries (food-growing!) that will ensure our region not only survives but thrives in a “more expensive energy” future.
I assumed that respected community organisations such as Sustainable Living Armidale and farming representatives would be invited to contribute their knowledge to this forum. Imagine my distress to learn that the forum has been restricted to the supporters of an energy form that is both unsustainable and deadly to the environment — coal seam gas. Why would a forum looking at responding to a problem caused by a non-renewable energy source’s depletion ignore sustainable, healthy alternatives and the key stakeholders affected by CSG mining and the economic advantages these industries offer our region?
If the coal seam gas industry is so sure it has the best answer, then it should have the confidence to invite people with different views. But it doesn’t, of course, because it knows it doesn’t have the interests of the people who live in this region at heart — just the profit margin of big companies based in countries that won’t experience the devastation that coal seam gas mining brings.
I strongly urge the RDANI to open up its forum to whoever is concerned about this issue, and for anyone in the community who is so concerned to knock on the door of Moore Park Inn this Friday at 9 and ask to be let in.
In the last three months, we have had two other forums on energy in Armidale that I know of: a Community forum on Coal Seam Gas in May, a Renewable Energy Round Table Forum in June. Neither of those well-attended forums was closed to the community, and I’m sure you would have been welcome to attend, too. Since your meeting is so secretive, it makes me wonder: what have you got to hide?
Cathie Lamont
