Newsletter #17 - A Room Full of Elephants

I keep hearing the old saying “You cant talk about the elephant in the room!” but what happens when you have a room full of elephants?? What do they talk about? In our case I think I have the answer. POLITICIANS . Yep, 1 elephant in the room is an issue that, while it may not sit well with everyone, can be discussed and resolved. A  room full of Elephants (eg. every renewable project across the country) means that we are being let down by the people that are meant to represent us.

VA committee members, Mark Eather & myself  met with EnergyCo in Sydney on February 7. Here’s a quick summary of the meeting and some other issues.

Elephant #1 - Bushfires : We discussed the Christmas / New Year fires around Tamworth and the impact of restricting water bomber access to Chaffey Dam. EnergyCo has gotten the message..finally. I think this is largely due to everything that was posted on facebook and the resulting Channel 7 coverage
January 1 - Channel 7 LINK TO VIDEO
January 11 - Channel 7 - LINK TO VIDEO

No mention or apology was given regarding the misinformation that EnergyCo has been pushing at meetings and in correspondence.

RESULT- EnergyCo are doing an assessment of the impact of the planned lines on bushfire fighting capability around Tamworth and in the Hunter. The report will be released to the public. We hope to see it by the end of March.
Doug Parris (NEREZ Project director) “If  I can spell it out reasonably bluntly. If It turns out that our overlays and studies say the transmission line is  in the wrong place. We'll move the transmission line.”

Elephant # 2 - The Aberbaldie TSR - You may remember the TSR report that was released last year that missed using all of the criteria in EnergyCo’s “5 Pillars” which is used for choosing a project location. Unfortunately when releasing the TSR report they neglected to use all the pillars in their evidence and “cherry picked” what suited their argument.
RESULT : EnergyCo have agreed to do an apples for apples comparison of the TSR and the current planned  route using the criteria that was established in the original route assessment document. We await the new report.

Elephant # 3 - The Penny Factor: We met Minister Penny Sharpe in December. One of the outcomes of the meeting was that the Minister was to meet with EnergyCo to ensure that community expectations were being met (discussed in Newsletter 16) . It was very clear that Minister Sharpe had met with someone at EnergyCo (probably CEO Hannah McCaughey). It was equally clear that the project team had not been given any significant guidance on all our issues. Management at EnergyCo have either NOT passed down the individual issues raised at the meeting or our issues were NOT discussed in a meaningful way by the Minister. In either event it is not clear if the dog wags it’s tail or the tail wags the dog!

Elephant # 4- Cost blowouts, Taxpayer fleecing- If you haven’t been following the renewables roll out news you may have missed the significant cost blowouts that are happening to most projects. The latest disaster is the 900 km Energy Connect transmission project connecting South Australia to NSW . The blowout from $1.5Bn to  $4.1 BILLION will hit every retail electricity (est up to $1100/yr) and commercial small biz (up to $7000/yr) electricity  users in NSW for years to come. Don’t worry Elecnor (Spanish owned) & Transgrid ( A Majority foreign fund owned business) will both make handy profits (up to 300% more than the original budget ests) !
EnergyCo clearly have the same disregard for consumers. They could save a minimum of $1.3Bn by choosing the 50km shorter route on crown land and state forest proposed by the local community. For more details click HERE

Elephant #5 - EDF Dungowan Pumped Hydro- When it rains it pours. EDF (Electricite De France, The State owned energy operator in France) is pushing forward with the Dungowan Dam pumped hydro project in the Dungowan Valley. Valley Alliance committee members attended a community meeting at Ogunbil Hall on February 11. It’s early days in this project and there are many stories floating around. EDF have at least 6 route options on the table to try and get the power out to existing power lines. If you live anywhere near the dam you may be impacted. The good news is that it’s a private enterprise so there is no compulsory acquisition issues. You can say NO.
As a result of the meeting a committee has been formed and email distribution lists created. If you are impacted and don't have the contact details , please let us know and we will put you in touch.

Elephant #6 - EnergyCo - failure to own an issue - In an effort to honour the intent of the Penny Sharpe meeting to “reset” the relationship with EnergyCo, we reached out to new CEO Hannah McCaughey and offered her an opportunity to apologise for her staff’s transgressions in the project to date. Our intent was to start FRESH and try to engage in honest and open dialogue. What did we get? NOTHING, RADIO SILENCE, ZIP. I now know what “Ghosting” is? Multiple emails and no response. Makes you wonder if they really want to reset (or if the message was even given). The lack of respect for our community is mindblowing

So what should we do when all the elephants are in the room and no-one hears you? VOTE. Hold the politicians accountable for their actions. They are meant to represent us. We need to ensure that everyone we know living in the major cities understands what is going on and how damaging this “transition” is in it’s current ill thought out shape.

Make sure you follow us on Facebook. Much of what we are doing is going onto that platform on a more regular basis . Follow us HERE

Remember we are stronger together. We will win if we don't break. Here is what farmers in Victoria are doing (READ ARTICLE)

Have a great week

Tim and the team at Valley Alliance