Investment in new coal-fired power stations
letter published in The Australian, 13 July 2010
You report the government as considering “tough” new measures on new coal-fired power stations and a national energy-efficiency target.
But Julia Gillard promulgates a “community consensus” before the start of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) that prices carbon to deter fossil fuel usage. Such a consensus must also surely be required for other measures to reduce fossil fuel use, including purported improvements in energy efficiency that substitute other more costly sources of energy.
The dangerous warming-thesis believers continually ignore the many errors and manipulations of temperature data identified in reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and some other analysts. Any community consensus to such analyses requires full explanations of why, during the past dozen years, global temperatures have been flat when the supposed temperature driving force (human activity) has increased.
In the meantime, Prime Minister Gillard should accept that, to sustain growth, investment in new coal-fired power stations must not be inhibited by unproven theories advocating reduced usage of our most valuable asset, coal.
Des Moore, South Yarra, Vic