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https://reneweconomy.com.au/show-your-face-energy-infrastructure-czar-tells-renewable-project-bosses-to-front-up-to-communities/>
"Developers of renewable energy and storage projects need to start owning the
problems they create in communities, says new Australian Energy Infrastructure
Commissioner (AEIC) Tony Mahar.
Renewable energy projects are creating motivated opposition in ways similar to
the powerful – and extremely effective – Shut The Gate coal seam gas protests
in the 2010s, but many developers and governments don’t appear to have learned
those lessons about how communities want to be treated.
Mahar says senior executives have to start fronting up to repair friction
caused by the fear of the unknown.
“The companies, and it’s also probably the state government planning
departments… [have] got to go there and show your face and own up and own the
problem,” he told
Renew Economy in an interview at the sidelines of the
Australian Wind Energy 2025 conference last week.
“[Communities] want the senior people. They don’t want the graduates, they
don’t want the interns. They want senior people out there to hear them and
listen to them, and that is the first step.”
Some objectors are “not for turning”, but Mahar says there are portions of any
community who, if listened to and provided opportunities to learn, will be open
to hearing about the ways their community could benefit from energy
infrastructure.
He believes even communities such as those in Victoria’s Kiewa Valley, where a
battery proposal had neighbours crossing the street to avoid each other, can be
brought back together.
“But it’ll be a task,” he says.
And it will require courage: anecdotally, some developers in particularly
febrile areas in Victoria are no longer running large community meetings
because of potential, or perceived, risk to staff."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
