What climate policy?
IT has been an interesting couple of weeks. Tony Abbott states you can’t run a steel plant on renewable energy just as steel baron Sanjeev Gupta and climate change expert Ross Garnaut combine forces to demonstrate you can.
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Barnaby Joyce again suggests we need to continue with coal-fired power stations as we don’t have the technology to use solar and wind to provide 24-hour power, just as an Australian National University report identifies 22,000 potential sites for pumped hydro storage sites in Australia.
Pumped hydro is proven technology, with plants operating since the 1920s, designed to provide power when wind and solar can’t.
Then Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg try to convince us that extending the life of Liddell power station beyond 2025 is essential if we are to have a reliable and affordable power system.
This is quickly followed by AGL sensibly and correctly announcing that, even with the best of maintenance, a 50-year-old coal-fired power station is never going to be cheap or reliable.
Two decades of lost opportunity in Opposition and Government and still no credible climate or energy policy. We deserve better.
- Richard Mallaby, Wangi Wangi
Lake level changes
MR Stevenson of Dora Creek misunderstands the causes of lake level changes (“Receding, not rising, lake”, Lakes Mail, September 21).
Except in periods of heavy rainfall the lake level is near the mean of recent low and high tide levels.
Over the long term the sea level is rising at about 3.2mm per year. I have lived on a waterfront block since early 1987 and since that time I am satisfied that the lake level has risen by between 90 and 100mm.
Early in my residency I constructed a concrete pedestrian walkway across the water front and had the jetty rebuild. Both are now much closer to the water level than they were when built.
- John Turner, Toronto
Get pollies on alliance
SOUTHLAKE Business Chamber and Community Alliance (SBCCA) president Fiona Hall is looking for people with a passion for a local issue (“Don’t whine, step up”, Lakes Mail, September 14).
That’s all we need! More and bigger committees.
Would, say, 10,000 people with a passion be enough?
We elected councillors, state members and federal members to look after our interests. If they are not doing their job sack them and elect someone who cares.
Our elected representatives have plenty to say when elections are looming. In the meantime, the silence is deafening.
Ms Hall should offer an open invitation for our elected representatives to join the SBCCA free of charge, and see which of them are really interested in their community.
- Trevor Burgess, Wyee Point
Hospital hospitality
I RECENTLY paid a visit to the Belmont Hospital’s day surgery unit. The staff I encountered were the most dedicated and helpful people you could possibly imagine.
What could have been an uncomfortable experience turned out to be almost a pleasant one; such was their level of care and attention.
I was introduced to so many during my short stay that I could not possibly remember all their names, however I do recall Renee who outfitted me with a high fashion back-fastening blue gown, Morton who wheeled me on a flat out inspection tour of the fluorescent ceiling lights, and Patrick who administered my dreamy pre-op sedative. My thanks go to all the wonderful staff including the parking attendant who waived the fee as we in turn waved our pension cards.
- George Aungle, Morisset Park