I emailed in this one below for this Wednesdays edition, no guarantee it will be printed.
The paper does ask *to keep it brief (mine seems to be a little long). * supply name * ph no. * email address
The truth about PEP11
All I read are Federal candidates and Council members jumping up and down in protest and in the Wyong Mayor, Bob Graham?s words `I'm going to make a lot of noise? and some uninformed locals voicing their concerns about environmental issues relating to PEP11. Firstly Greens candidate and Councillor, Cr Peter Freewater is going against his own party about introducing clean burning gas fuel for our power plants . He apparently prefers the filthy smokey coal burning power plants on the Central Coast, and don?t those coal mines leave a beautiful scar in our Hunter Valley play ground. Now he says that the drilling site is on Foresters Beach. It?s actually off Catherine Hill Bay and it?s so far out you will not see it. You just have to look at the survey sites submitted to Gov?t to find out the location. It?s that easy. About the whales issues Cr Freewater and other Councillors. If I was a whale I would find it much easier to dodge a gas rig compared to the 40 odd mobile coal, oil and cargo tankers that are from as close as only 1km off the coast. You talk about visual pollution, and what if one of these went down !!
Now to inform the people with all environmental concerns, just read this link - http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=show_document;document_id=35801;proposal_id=5094
Apparently the local pollies haven?t read it. Everyone I know who have read it are all supportive of the benefits to the Central Coast. People don?t let the pollies deceive you. Yes it is election time, so beware. They want to hold their seats. For eg in November 2008 Wyong Council passed a resolution of support for the PEP11 project conditional on Federal Gov?t and NSW State Gov?t fully assessing environmental concerns, which has happened with flying colours. Even the CSIRO has given their stamp of approval.
Documentation readily accessible shows the councillors who passed the resolution were Cr?s Best, Eaton, Bob Graham, McNamara, Symington, Webster and Wynn. Against were Cr?s McBride, Matthews and Vincent. They seemed to have conveniently forgotten that they were part of the original approval, and it seems like ?Empty vessels make the most noise? Cr Graham.
This is not a oil rig. Gas drilling is totally different, and so much easier and safer. PEP11 contains several naturally occurring sub sea floor gas leaks already, like numerous other naturally occurring leaks around the world, and nothing is comparable to the oil leaks in Mexico as people are suggesting. This is a good thing if they find gas, for Central Coast, NSW, the Country and for the Planet.
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