Trans-Tasman this week pans Green opposition to mining, with the headline “Miners among the saviours”. The normally penetrating newsletter goes on to say:“…the mining sector is proving how vital a component in the NZ economy it is becoming. The 1000MW Huntly power station, fuelled by coal, is running flat out because of low hydro storatge, and the Govt hopes it will prove the diffference between this year’s winter and the last power shortage in 2002, when there wasn’t enough coal available for Huntly to run at capacity”.
If they’re right there should be a million or so tonnes of coal to burn through this crisis. So mining is making a critical contribution to New Zealand’s economy.
Still, I have a miner quibble. They’re not our miners.
That coal was Indonesian coal when I last asked about Huntly’s supplies as an MP. I was especially interested, as I was an inaugural director of the SOE that is now Solid Energy.
So our lights will be kept going by Indonesian miners, and the seamen who deliver it to Tauranga, and Toll who set up an efficient service for railing it to Huntly.
Why are we burning Indonesian coal when we have perhaps 900 years supply of our own? Because, among other things, our RMA makes it too hard to open new mines here, we’re too green. We’ll feel so much better about our environment if we make sure the big holes stay in crowded Indonesia.
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I think it would be much preferable if we had wind and sea power as our backup to hydro and the thermal stations as last resort.
I think windmills are elegant creations and I’m assured that the noise they make from people who have stood underneath them is not THAT loud and certainly not objectionable. It is dissapointing to see a campaign against them led by a gifted artist who cannot see the beauty of them and instead wants nuclear power which is far too expensive for a small country like New Zealand.
So I guess I am really against big holes in both Indonesia and NZ 🙂