Local MP and senior NSW minister Andrew Constance has asked for no big P politics while the South Coast continues to battle devastating bushfires.
Ignoring his plea, the NSW government has just made a deal with Prime Minister Scott Morrison to make climate change worse.
The two governments plan to subsidise gas generation of electricity and open a huge new gas fracking field in Narrabri in north western NSW, while pretending this will bring down emissions.
Gas is a fossil fuel, less polluting than coal until you include the emissions leaking at the gas wells.
We don’t need gas powered electricity, we need a ten year effort to close all the coal stations and move to solar, wind, hydro and batteries. We also need to look after the communities which currently rely on coal.
Fracking is opposed by farmers across the country because of chemical contamination of ground water. Narrabri farmers cannot afford to have Santos’ fracking operation draining vast amounts of water out of the aquifers during the drought.
Aren’t the bushfires bad enough? We don’t want to make them worse. It is beyond stupid to increase emissions when we are suffering from the shocking effects of climate change.