Need for power

Anyone who lauds Jay Weatherill’s power policy for South Australia is delusional.

His government blew up their Northern coal power station. This was SA’s main source of cheap reliable base power and was a wilful act of economic vandalism.

All part of SA’s foolish rush to heavily subsidised, inefficient, unreliable renewables.

Battery storage is fine for home solar systems but it is no solution to give security for a state with heavy industry. SA now has the most expensive power in Australia, pensioners and the poor struggle to pay their bills and new heavy industry will not be attracted. Many existing industries will relocate overseas as unemployment builds.

SA will become an economic basket case as this idealogical experiment goes pear shaped.

Victoria is now following this economy destroying plan.With respect to the employees and with half a thought for our economy, Hazelwood should have been phased out over a decade not shut in the blink of an eye.

It should not have been fully shut until a replacement source of cheap, reliable base load power was in place.

Instead of helping this sensible transition Dan Andrews signalled to Engie that cheap, reliable coal fired base load power was no longer acceptable for all Victorians.

Dan’s government gave Engie this clear, unequivocal message when they tripled the royalties on coal last year. As old as Hazelwood was, on an average day it still produced more power than all of Australia’s windturbines combined.

Our population is growing and we are going to feel the loss of that 22 per cent capacity. When the wind doesn’t blow in SA we were exporting that coal fired power to SA.

We all want to save the planet but C02 is not our enemy. If we shut all of our coal fired power stations down tomorrow, we will not alter Australia’s weather or climate.

Those now unemployed in the Latrobe Valley should not worry about the future. Dan has a plan. He has employed a public servant, a union mate, former president of the South Gippsland Labor Party to deal with job losses and create new jobs.

It has been reported that Karin Cain will be paid $340,000 to sort out the vexing problem of unemployment, post Hazelwood.

I hope she has a vision and is successful however, like most Labor politicians and their pet appointees there is a complete lack of