Voices from Regional Vic: No need for new coalmines

Voices from regional Victoria are calling for the Andrews government to back ambitious Renewable Energy Targets and protect farmland from the threat of coal exploration.

The Andrews government will soon make decisions that will shape Victoria’s energy future.

They will soon decide whether to lift the ban on onshore gasfields in the state, as well as release its Renewable Energy Action Plan that will set Victorian Renewable Energy Targets for 2020 and 2025.

A new issue appeared on the agenda in March with Mantle Mining/Exergen seeking an extension to a coal exploration licence in the Bacchus Marsh area.

With Victoria’s energy future at stake, community members from regional Victoria are speaking up for renewables and and end to polluting coal.

The following letter by Tony Goodfellow was published in Ballarat’s daily newspaper, The Courier:

Bacchus Marsh has a problem, it has is 1.6 billion tonnes of brown coal, the most polluting kind under it, and a company is laying the ground work to dig it up and burn it.

The Andrews government is considering an extension to an exploration license. This is a good chance to show leadership on climate change (a Victorian Renewable Energy Target wouldn’t hurt too).

Our country doesn’t need another coal mine. It would be an act of denial, sending the signal that we’re not taking climate change seriously and that Victoria is still closed for renewable energy.

The Climate Council concluded that “to have any chance of meeting the 2°C policy target, new investment in fossil fuels, particularly in coal, needs to be reduced to zero as soon as possible.”

In order to take climate change seriously fossil fuels need to stay in the ground, we also need to move to de-carbonise our economy as quickly as possible. This means no new coal mines in Australia.

Do Ballarat’s elected representatives support new coal mines, like the one at Bacchus Marsh?

With a federal election around the corner does Catherine King MP and Senator John Madigan support new coal mines?

Does Senator Madigan recognise the evidence presented by the IPCC, of human influence on the climate and the need to mitigate greenhouse gasses?

Considering he thinks the current observable warming is not from humans “because the dinosaurs aren’t here anymore.” It would be good to hear commitments that are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.

TAKE ACTION:

The Bacchus Marsh-based Mooroobool Environment Group is calling for the licence extension to be put on hold pending the state government’s review of new coal projects. The group is asking people to write to the minister for energy in support of this position. Click here for more information.