Directing our energy

Looking out my window on one of the shortest days of the year and it’s bright and sunny.

It’s a warm and mild winter’s day, thanks to the life and energy giving of the sun (and a hundred years of post-industrial revolution pollution and deforestation creating greenhouse gasses and warming the planet).

So when I read this week that the federal government announced a huge solar farm just outside of Moree, funded by a consortium including the environmentally dubious BP, I thought it seemed like a good idea.

When I read the announcement by Red Sky energy that they were proposing a second gas-fired power station near Casino as a slightly smaller sibling to the already-approved Richmond Valley Power Station, I wondered if I should move from Coraki to Moree.

I recognise that locally-sourced methane produces less carbon dioxide when burnt than brown coal, and that it is unfair to ask the Hunter Valley to continue to shoulder the lion’s share of power generation, but if we can produce our energy needs from the sun, shouldn’t we be directing our energy towards that?

As Tony Abbott’s half-plebiscite (as he will only accept the result if it’s the one he wants) idea about a tax on carbon pollution came out this week, Janelle Saffin has publicly committed to supporting 20% of any funds raised from the proposed carbon tax going to renewable energy.

Ordinary householders will be compensated for rises in electricity prices and to the cost of living.

Let’s just get on with it and spare ourselves the huge extra expense the Opposition leader’s hubris would cost. Let’s tax pollution.