Demands NSW Government stop construction of new, dangerous and environmentally damaging energy towers altogether and go underground
Residents from communities spanning from Wagga to the edge of Sydney today welcomed the NSW Government’s recognition that high voltage powerlines significantly impact regional communities, but rejected its proposed compensation package as a band aid solution to a much bigger environmental and social issue.
Michael Katz, a member of HomeLink Alliance which recently joined with HumeLink Action Group to run the Stop, Rethink HumeLink Towers campaign, urged the Government to not only consider better compensation, but also the best possible way to transmit energy without the environmental, visual, social and bushfire risks associated with building massive new transmission towers across hundreds of kilometres of rural land, State Forests and National Parks.
Mr Katz said that to truly match the Government’s commitment to build “a modern electricity grid that maximises benefits for communities and households”, it should not be based on old, dangerous and inefficient tower technology but go underground.
“Green energy must be about the end-to-end delivery of power to consumers, not just generation,” Mr Katz said. “The reality is that today’s compensation announcement is in effect a subsidy for Transgrid – a foreign owned company – to destroy 2500 hectare of land between Wagga Wagga and the Snowy Mountains to the start of the Southern Highlands.”
“We congratulate the NSW Government for having the ‘most ambitious renewable energy policy in the nation, which is needed to replace the State’s ageing coal fired power stations and build a clean energy future for NSW, and will support them to do it properly, by looking at undergrounding as they recently announced they will in Victoria for the Marinus Link project with Federal Government funding support.”
“In many other jurisdictions, such as Europe and California, they are doing away with high voltage overhead transmission lines, in favour of undergrounding – a solution which does not require large scale clear-felling of large tracts of bushland that will leave a permanent scar on the landscape, has less impacts on endangered habitat and mental health, will not contribute to - or impede the fighting of – bushfires, nor disrupt farming practices.”
Mr Katz said true green energy transmission must have minimal impact of the environment. In the case of HumeLink, replacing trees with 85-metre-high carbon intensive steel poles is not very green in most people’s thinking.
“We need Stop, Rethink HumeLink, so people don’t look back in the future and question why we damaged the environment and contributed to the loss of many of our rare and endangered Australian species in order to deliver more environmentally friendly energy!”
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Media Contact: Michael Katz 0414 271 620
Peter Laidlaw 0419 210 306
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