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Wind Power has blown my Community Away - Howard EmanuelFor the life of me I find it very difficult to rationalise the Bracks governments approach to Wind power in the state of Victoria at present. Read More... By Howard Emanuel - 3rd October 2004 - Back to News For the life of me I find it very difficult to rationalise the Bracks governments approach to Wind power in the state of Victoria at present. There are very strong indications from overseas that wind power in fact is in decline as a preferred renewable energy source. It seems that Denmark one of the pioneering countries of the wind energy revolution, even with its lack of sunshine hours is moving toward the adoption of Solar as a renewable energy source. There must be some serious deficiencies and concerns in regards to wind power that encourages this move.
There are so many unanswered questions as to just what the tangible long-term benefits of wind energy are, so many unknown and unquantified health and social impacts and yet the Bracks Labor government has essentially pushed aside all these doubts and rolled on regardless. Various calls for a moratorium to allow information to be gathered from overseas have been ignored. This information could tell us if we are adopting leading edge technologies or if in fact we are on the brink of making a serious and very costly mistake in embracing wind power as our preferred renewable energy choice.
My cynicism tells me this move by the Bracks government is more about mitigating the leaching green vote from the ALP to the Greens Party, than strong social policy. The need to shore up support, from wherever it may come, at whatever cost. The state government’s announcement of its support for the Bald Hills wind farm facility in South Gippsland has left a great many in my community confused, angry and just plain depressed.
Recent comments by the developers of this facility in regard to community concerns showed a very real lack of sensitivity and concern and only go to further underpin my view that certain businesses in Australia are wholly motivated by the profit consideration and care little for the welfare of the people of the Australian community. And yet it is so very obvious that there is a trend in this country that calls for businesses to operate in a sensitive and ethical manner, to ensure as much as is possible that their products do not impact on human health, but still the titans of business remain unmoved.
Perhaps they are suffering from the same myopia as the Bracks government, out of touch with the communities they serve, out of touch with the shifting trends, perhaps too comfortable in their ivory towers away from the people’s needs and aspirations.
It is time to remove our support from both business and Governments who thumb their noses at the community, who in the face of real evidence to the contrary enforce their own narrow self-interested agenda on an unwilling and vulnerable community. It was my understanding that Governments and business are there to meet our needs, to provide for us, although sometimes I seriously question whether in fact the roles have not been reversed.
Thank you.
Howard Emanuel.
Independent Candidate for the Federal Seat of McMillan.
Convener: Rural Social Justice Movement
Tele/Fax: (03)5684 1561
Mobile: 0400 158 896
E-mail: howard@howardemanuel.com
Website: www.HowardEmanuel.com
"Bringing the People back into Policy!"
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: kris@howardemanuel.com
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