I was pretty relaxed until I read on the front page the story Activists protest coal use.
My immediate thought was that they’re always protesting about something but why coal use? Couldn’t they just revert to the tried and true Flat Earth Society?
Alas no, here was this group of “protesters” chained to the fence of Fonterra’s Clandeboye dairy factory protesting at the diary co-operative’s use of coal.
The claim was that Fonterra was the country’s second-largest user of coal and its use was increasing.
They even have a name for the protest group, Coal Action Network Aotearoa. Surely they had something better to do.
We even had “veteran protester” and former Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons there and I’d thought she was out to pasture.
As I’ve said in this column before, who’d be a farmer?
Having a calm, unemotive and factual look at the issue I came up with something quite different from that of the protesters.
Our energy use is about 50% more non-renewable energy than renewable.
The main non-renewable energy is oil and gas followed by coal. Coal provides a little over 20% of our non-renewable energy, a minor amount.
In addition, the burning of coal does pollute but so does the burning of oil and gas.
Given the far-lesser use of coal it would follow that the problem of burning coal in New Zealand is less than that for oil and gas.
So where are the protests at the petrol tanks, the car yards and such?
Also, the International Energy Agency tells me the use of coal is decreasing but China still burns 50% of the world’s coal.
I’m surprised the Coal Action Network doesn’t have a tented village outside the Chinese Embassy.
Further, the most coal burned in NZ is for power generation.
I would certainly hope that the protesters from CANA disconnect their microwaves and hair dryers while protesting outside the power generation companies.
The second biggest use is for the production of cement, lime and plaster.
The biggest manufacturer of cement in NZ is Golden Bay Cement, owned by Fletcher Building. The company has a large offshore ownership.
Surely, that is a more important target for the protesters than Fonterra’s Clandeboye dairy plant but, hey, there aren’t any farms at the cement plant so why bother.
Third on the list you have agriculture, which would include Fonterra.
I researched the Clandebore plant, which, unknown to me, had been operating since 1904. It has 865 staff, which would provide a considerable boost to the South Canterbury economy.
Its annual production is 400,000 tonnes.
The Clandeboye plant is innovative with a world-first, state-of-the-art mozzarella cheese making operation.
In addition, the plant produces milk powder and cheese.
In a world starved for protein it produces 21,500 tonnes each year.
So, without the Clandeboye plant the South Canterbury economy would be in a far worse state.
A starving world wouldn’t have 400,000 tonnes of high-quality, safe food.
It wouldn’t have world-first mozzarella cheese making providing a niche product to the high-end gourmet markets.
That’s what the Clandeboye plant is doing for the South Canterbury and NZ economies.
Conversely, what are the protesters contributing to anything?
In a word, zip.
They are merely joining the masses of uninformed protesters slagging farmers and the agricultural sector while not letting a fact get in the way of a good story.
Let’s look at the logic of using coal.
Coal is obviously used because it is a cheaper energy source than electricity. You couldn’t have access to natural gas in the South Island but the issue is that natural gas, like coal, is non-renewable and a pollutant.
The plant could use electricity but Fonterra’s role is to provide the best returns for its shareholders and coal helps it achieve that.
There is another option.
The Bluff aluminium smelter gets cheap power. On top of that it received a $30 million handout from the Government for precisely nothing.
The dairy industry has been with us for over 150 years and will continue to be a vital cornerstone of the NZ economy.
The smelter has been there less than 50 years and could leave at any time.
The dairy industry is owned by kiwis, the smelter by the multi-national Rio Tinto.
Aluminium smelting provides every bit as much pollution as burning coal yet we allow it to use 13% of our electricity.
The Clandeboye plant employs more people than the smelter.
With cheap power Fonterra wouldn’t burn coal.
