More environmental vandalism.

---

KOSCIUSZKO TRASHED

Snowy 2.0, Australia’s largest renewable energy project, is advancing across multiple fronts despite recent temporary work stoppages and fierce environmental opposition.

The project will see new above-ground high voltage power lines erected through the Kosciuszko National Park, and Transgrid has been tasked with designing and constructing the new network infrastructure to Snowy 2.0 to Australia’s main grid.

Their work so far has already caused “massive permanent damage” to the area, according to the National Parks Association of New South Wales.

Here is a look at some of the ‘progress’ photos from the project to-date:

Since approval, the project has attracted the ire of environmental groups who have argued the project will have an unacceptable impact on the iconic national park.

The overwhelming concerns were centred around the construction of overhead powerlines, rather than underground, and the potential for impacts on the park’s biodiversity.

Environmental groups called on Transgrid to use underground network infrastructure to minimise the project’s long-term impact, but Transgrid pushed back on the request.

The group argued there would still be permanent impacts on the park even with underground network infrastructure, while doing so would also ‘significantly increase the project’s budget’ and ‘make it more challenging to maintain the network link’.

Transgrid said that design options that use overhead transmission lines would allow the project to be built at a cost of around $290 to $450 million, while using underground power lines could increase the construction cost to between $1 billion to $1.4 billion.

“The merits of the project including the benefits of connecting Snowy 2.0 to the NEM are considered to outweigh any identified adverse impacts of this project,” say Transgrid.

“While some environmental impacts cannot be avoided, they have and would be minimised to the extent practicable through the implementation of mitigation measures and where residual impacts remain, they will be offset.”

Environmental groups have described Snowy 2.0 as “worst possible project in worst possible location”, and say the expansion will likely exceed stated cost estimates.

The environmental impact statement for the network upgrades were assessed by NSW government planning authorities, with around 65 per cent of community submissions expressing opposition and calling for the use of underground power lines.

“The apparent reluctance to acknowledge cost as the primary driver has resulted in an EIS that attempts to make a frankly Orwellian argument that underground cables have a greater environmental impact than would overhead towers in a permanently cleared easement,” the submission from the National Parks Association of NSW says.

“The proposition is simply absurd, the lower environmental impacts of undergrounding are precisely why overhead transmission is no longer regarded as acceptable practice on the international stage.”

None of the submissions expressed active support for the project, while around a dozen submissions – mostly from government entities – provided advice on the project.

The Snowy 2.0 expansion was the pet project of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and has been enthusiastically embraced by energy minister Angus Taylor, and proposes to “…build 2,000MW of pumped hydro capacity with up to 175 hours of energy storage”.

However, while the federal government claims that the project is necessary to meet the growing need for energy storage capacity within the National Electricity Market, is this really the case when investigating?

Back in 2020, The National Parks Association of NSW today released a comprehensive research paper that found all of the claimed benefits of the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro storage project to be overstated or false.

“Snowy 2.0 should not have been contemplated in the first place, due to its substantial, permanent environmental damage to Kosciuszko National Park,” reads the report.

Why is the government so bent on destroying once of our most treasured national parks?

THE DEEPER STORY?

Snowy Hydro Limited is responsible for operating and maintaining the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme, which includes the Snowy 2.0 project.

Do you know what else they have been responsible for?

Cloud seeding experiments throughout the New South Wales region.

Following initial cloud seeding trials in 2004 in the region, Snowy found that the “exceptional scientific merit of the trial”, “positive results of the evaluation”, and “absence of adverse environmental impacts” were sufficiently ‘compelling’ for the government to pass legislation for an ongoing, operational cloud seeding program.

James Pirozzi, manager at Snowy Hydro, explained in a 2018 ABC interview just how their technology works and has developed in the 21^st century:

“We’ve got a series of ground-based generators on the western side of the Great Dividing Range in the Kosciusko National Park, and we use the natural terrain features in the wind to give us uplift to get that material from the ground up into the clouds,” Pirozzi said.

Those generators, the burners themselves [are] essentially a big propane flame.”

The cloud seeding activities undertaken by Snowy Hydro are authorised by the Snowy Mountains Cloud Seeding Act 2004 (Act), which prescribes a number of mandatory requirements for cloud seeding programs in NSW.

One 2011 peer reviewed paper suggested an average 14 per cent increase in rainfall due to recent Snowy Mountain cloud seeding trials.

Could there be something deeper going on with this energy project?

The organisation is wholly owned by the Australian government, represented by the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy.

Snowy 2.0 is Australia’s largest energy project, estimated to cost 12 billion Australian dollars and projected to generate 10% of the nation’s energy.

Not only is the environmental vandalism not surprising, given the history of Snowy themselves, but potentially there could be a duel purpose to what is occurring here.

At a bare minimum, more contribution to the engineered destruction and alteration of our natural environments, and perhaps even deeper than that..

What are your thoughts on this project?

Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section below!

---

---

KEEP UP-TO-DATE

For more TOTT News:

Facebook — Facebook.com/TOTTNews

YouTube — YouTube.com/TOTTNews

Instagram — Instagram.com/TOTTNews

Twitter — Twitter.com/EthanTOTT

Bitchute — Bitchute.com/TOTTNews

Gab — Gab.com/TOTTNews

---

---