Regarding the open letter by Metgasco CEO Peter Henderson yesterday in response to Julie McNamara, I couldn’t find anything about a ‘Traumaton incident’ in early 2013 after a half hour of searching.
Having an ‘invitation to explore’ granted by our democratically elected government is not the same thing as having a ‘social licence,’ particularly when our current elected state and federal governments have made promises to the public regarding coal seam gas and unconventional gas mining, which were then ignored, forgotten and/ or backflipped over once they gained power.
Baseline testing is a very recent addition to the safety measures imposed on your industry – and that is largely due to the education of the public by CSG opponents and consequent outcry that something so obvious would be absent.
Further, you claim it is ‘inconceivable’ that the Rosella mine activities could damage water or air yet the NSW water regulations which you kindly directed our attention to (in defence of the reasonableness and trustworthy nature of your industry), specify that all such activities must conceive of a worst case scenario and have plans prepared in advance. If you can’t conceive of a problem, how then are we to believe you could possibly be prepared to fix one – let alone acknowledge that serious issues with your industry exist?
Perhaps Tweed and Murwillumbah are not in your sights but the northern rivers is a deeply connected community, so what you do to our neighbours matters to us all. Your industry and the outmoded existence it represents (which is a key player in the destruction of our planet) is not welcome here.
Aletha Zylstra, Yelgun
Let’s face it Althea your letter is NIMBYism personified. You are also in good company with the Echo’s editor believing in the carbon-less tooth fairy.
As you flick your switch or turn on your gas to cook your three vegs tonight, stop, think, where did this energy come from? Victoria, SA or somewhere else?
Where did the fertilize materialize from to grow the food that helps feed half the planet?
Gas Althea! together with millions of other products that make life both possible,bearable and healthy for the privileged with access to it.
Perhaps you wish us all to drudge for hours to collect the sticks to cook the family meal and light the night as is the lot of millions on this planet?
John, why don’t you sell your Metgasco shares while they are still worth something and invest into solar? Check it out. Unlike Metgasco, it will have a future!
Alok
Dear Jon,
I stop and think all the time, that’s why I bother to read and research the open letter from Peter Henderson rather than simply dismissing anything he has to say. I bothered to find out about the difference between LPG and CSG, Tight Sands and other unconventional gas mining practices. I know where the LPG I use in my kitchen comes from and how it’s made. I know it is a non-renewable resource with lower carbon emissions than an electric stove. I know that the government subsidizes the coal and gas industry whilst claiming that renewables are not viable. Many fertilizers used in industrial agriculture to boost depleted soils are petro-chemical based, but this is not longer considered ‘best practice.’ Coal and oil are very useful, but the way we use them has to change (see IPCC report released 31/3/14.) Life is definitely possible, bearable and healthy, Jon, without millions of products. It is the misguided belief that we require ‘millions of products’ to live a good life which has brought our planet to this crisis point. I am not a Luddite and your concern that I might wish us all to spend hours collecting sticks to cook the evening meal is both hilarious( given that I am concerned with reducing our environmental impact) and oddly uninformed if you think that that is the only alternative ‘energy source’ or lifestyle available.