Landholders and residents ask ‘Is the New England REZ Broken?’

17th Sep 2024

New England landowners and residents will ask the question ‘Is the New England REZ broken?’ at a forum to be hosted by Responsible Energy Development for New England in Armidale on October 3rd.
The forum will be held at the Armidale Bowling Club and will bring together community members including those impacted by 13 renewables projects.
It will present the first interactive cumulative impact map of proposed New England renewable energy projects and transmission lines, from Nundle to Glen Innes, created by environmentalist Steven Nowakowski.
Speakers will discuss five themes; planning policy failure, poor site selection, environmental impacts, rising renewables and energy costs, and nuclear energy. They include ReD4NE member Beth White; landowner and conservationist Dr Roger Welch; Centre for Independent Studies Energy Director Aiden Morrison; Nuclear for Climate Australia founder Robert Parker; University of New England lecturer Dr Steven Debus’; Kindly Animal Shelter owner Trinity Hooper and Hills of Gold Preservation Inc. member Megan Trousdale.
ReD4NE spokesperson Beth White says the forum is motivated by landowner frustration at the disconnect between federal government messaging on social licence, community consultation, the lived experience with the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, (DPHI) Independent Planning Commission,(IPC) and EnergyCo.
Mrs White pointed to the recent EnergyCo New England transmission route proposal and the DPHI and IPC approvals of Thunderbolts Wind Farm and Hills of Gold Wind Farm as examples of local majority opposition, environmental concerns, and Government’s own guidelines being ignored.
“With capital expenditure and operating costs increasing, Renewable Energy projects are increasingly, unviable economically. Federal and state forecasts that renewable energy will put downward pressure on energy prices is an illusion. The outcome is quite the opposite. Families are paying more,” Mrs White said.
“The New England is watching the cumulative impact in the Central West Orana REZ to see what is coming, but there is no mechanism for landowners to stop any imposition on quality of life, on community cohesion, or property rights.”