Polluters' interests first

Age
19 Oct 2011, Page: 16

YOU can only be bewildered by a government that gives residents the right of veto over new wind farms within 2 km of their residence, yet potential coalmines like the one proposed for Bacchus Marsh ("Not in our backyard, locals tell upbeat mining company", The Age, 18/10), the coalmine extension at Anglesea or new coal-fired power plants like the proposed HRL plant in the Latrobe Valley are quite OK. All are, or will be, within two km of residents but have no well-funded and well-connected "Landscape Guardians" to lobby against the proposals. So excavating and burning pollutants is not a threat to the landscape.

I had to laugh at the government's comment that it was sympathetic to landowners who did not want to give up their properties for mining operations, but it would not be at the expense of the state's economic interests. Having killed off future economic benefits of wind farms, the government should just concede it is only interested in economic benefits from the polluters.

Chris Owens, Lysterfield