Richard Swinton, Clunes
Hello Kevin, as a constituent of Page, I am horrified to hear that your government is effectively blackmailing the states to open up gas exploration and fracking.
As you would be well aware, there have been mass protests against gas development both in your electorate as well as other areas in NSW and other states.
I hope you are aware of what this means to meeting carbon emission promises – methane (natural gas and coal seam gas) is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide – 25 to 100 times depending on how long you measure the impact. So only small amounts of fugitive gas need to escape the chain, which includes drilling, development, transport, processing, transport to markets and then storage, and distribution at the retail end. To keep these fugitive emissions below two per cent, which is what scientists say would exceed carbon emission equivalents, is highly unlikely, impossible in fact.
Research both here (by Southern Cross University) and in the USA shows that fugitive emissions at the mine sites greatly exceed the two per cent figure, and when looking at the whole chain, figures as high as 6–12 per cent have been recorded.
This makes the support – nay, blackmail – for gas development a disastrous decision. On top of this are issues such as water pollution and access, impacts on communities, etc.
Please do whatever you can to stop this focus on gas.
We need to transition as quickly as possible (the IPCC has given a figure of 11 years to drop emissions by 50 per cent). I know your government is pressured by the coal and gas exploration companies, but we need to look towards protecting our children and their safe future, not the profits of big corporations.
If you haven’t already, I suggest you read Ross Garnault’s recent book Australia as an energy superpower that proposes a highly profitable transition to renewables.
Don’t let the extreme right conservatives, who cannot see beyond their own experience, stop the implementation of a sustainable future for our children. I don’t know about you, but I’d far rather my grandchildren thanked me, rather than blamed me for the future they will inherit.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
