Farmers and communities along the proposed VNI West corridor learned their fate this week as the route for the 240 kilometres of Victoria – New South Wales Interconnector West (hence VNI West) through Mallee was finalised to a 70-metre-wide easement.
 
If constructed, VNI West will run north from Bulgana past St Arnaud, Charlton and Boort, tracking east through Tragowel then north past Kerang to cross the river border at Murrabit.
 
While 9 Loddon properties are affected, an unknown number of Gannawarra shire properties are in the line of fire, plus another 54 in Buloke and 78 in Northern Grampians.
 
I understand that most farmers and landholders in the proposed corridor will not be opening their gates to ‘Transmission Company Victoria’ – the local arm of the Australian Energy Market Operator, AEMO.  Locked gates strongly suggest compulsory acquisition will be necessary, and I expect everyone will be lawyering up.
 
Farmers are not convinced by Victorian Government claims they will soften the blow by paying $8,000 per kilometre hosted per annum over 25 years – chicken feed compared to the state government earning $177,000 per kilometre annually in taxes over the same period.
 
There is no transparency on the subsidies ‘renewable’ energy gains from taxpayers and customers who are battling energy bills. The amount paid to landholders to host wind turbines is also chicken feed compared to the windfall gains proponents will earn.  Here in Mallee companies that negotiate the construction of wind turbines have sold the project after completion. I have been warning farmers to get legal advice on liability to remove the turbines or panels at the end of a hosted project.  At the end of the 15 to 30 year operational life, allegedly turbines will cost upward of $700,000 each to remove and dispose of. If the company that signed the deal isn’t held liable, every cent the farmer earned from hosting the turbine – if not a lot more – will be needed to decommission them.
 
The secrecy, division, angst and heartbreak in communities has been unnecessarily caused by a combined State-Federal Labor Governments hell-bent on ramming through a globally unproven renewables-only approach to our energy grid.
 
The material falling off turbines in Victoria, and the need to replace the turbine blades or panels are not the same kind of ‘renewable’ the proponents are spruiking.
 
Renewables secrecy extends to a lack of accurate carbon accounting on their footprint for construction and replacement of the turbines and panels, let alone the impact on the local environment.  Mallee constituents along the corridor fear the impacts VNI West and ‘renewable’ projects will have on local flora and fauna.  Environmental impacts are swept aside by those purporting to ‘save the planet’.  ‘Renewables’ zealotry looks more like a money-making scheme for the doomsayers of global warming who jet around to climate conferences claiming they’re saving the world.
 
The Liberal-National Coalition’s energy policies will deliver reliable, 24-7 electricity.  No matter how many batteries Labor dumps in communities like Joel Joel in the Grampians without consultation, ‘renewables’ are no substitute – for now - for gas or coal underpinning our energy grid as they are phased out in a sensible fashion.  New generation, zero emissions nuclear energy is a proven technology relied upon by major economies and an increasing number of developing economies to guarantee baseload power. 
 
People with net worth upwards of $100 billion like Bill Gates are investing in nuclear technology as computing power demand grow exponentially. Artificial intelligence (AI) and, to a lesser degree, cryptocurrency ‘mining’ is pushing data centre energy to 2.5 per cent of total demand, projected to triple in the next five years alone.  When the grid is already under strain from increasing population and inner-city electric vehicle uptake, zero emissions nuclear technology makes sense to everyone but the Albanese Labor Government. 
 
The Coalition backs the growing global consensus supporting zero emissions nuclear power.  Nuclear power for Australia means new plants at the 7 nominated sites – well clear of Mallee, I might add – using existing transmission infrastructure corridors.  Labor’s plan for 28,000 kilometres of new transmission lines would be significantly curtailed, and perhaps – if it is not too late – the VNI West pain for Loddon and other Mallee communities can be avoided.