By Andrew Bolt ~
Former Labor Minister Gary Johns on the mad campaign against coal:
Convicted killer, now Anglican priest, Evan Pederick is the perfect poster boy for the fossil fuel divestment campaign. The convicted and self-confessed terrorist has been taken into the bosom of the Anglican Church and joined forces with other churches to divest their institutions of investments in fossil fuels (and some minerals).
That other church of green ideology, the Australian National University, has done the same.
Pederick willingly and knowingly set out to destroy a life, that of the Indian prime minister, by planting a bomb in Sydney in 1978. He missed and killed three others instead. Divestment activists, perhaps unwittingly, also will harm innocent people.
Instead of Killers against Coal, why not Christians for Coal?
The moral calculation is simple. An effective divestment campaign would increase the cost of power and harm the poor.
It would substitute the possible risk of some harm to life from climate change decades into the future with the certain harm to life from denial of access to cheap energy now. An ineffective campaign, which is more likely, would waste the opportunity to put funds to better use.
Former Treasurer Peter Costello:
The Uniting Church has already decided, at least in two states, to divest shares in all companies that produce fossil fuels. The Anglican Church is following on behind as activists in its forums seek a blanket ban on holding such investments. Why waste time going company by company when they are all equally culpable?
If Australia closes down coal mining or oil and gas production there will be a huge loss of national income. Families and businesses will be hit with rocketing energy costs. Miners will lose their jobs and towns will close. This would be a huge cost to the nation. That’s why the government has a legitimate interest in this issue. It would have to pick up the cost. Governments have to deal with consequences not just moral posturing.
UPDATE
The fossil fuel debate has long needed many more champions. Weak state governments, particularly in NSW and Victoria, are a good example of what happens when governments are frightened to govern…
In Victoria, bans on exploration for gas have been used with no good reason, at the expense of the revitalisation of eastern Victoria. In NSW, the failure to confront the greenies is on track to cost jobs and economic dislocation, especially in manufacturing…
It’s bizarre that greenies oppose using natural gas when natural gas reduces emissions by about half. It is also odd that the green movement oppose fracking for natural gas but support hot fracture rock geothermal technology, in other words: fracking!
Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia.
Andrew Bolt’s columns appear in Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and Adelaide’s Advertiser. He runs the most-read political blog in Australia and hosts Channel 10’s The Bolt Report each Sunday at 10am. He is also heard from Monday to Friday at 8am on the breakfast show of radio station MTR 1377, and his book Still Not Sorry remains very widely read.
Read more excellent articles from Andrew Bolt’s Blog . http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/
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Posted on Tue 10/21/2014 by PA Pundits - International
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