The public chide Elder

What do Southlanders think of Don Elder's claims about lignite mining?
The Southland Times article titled 'Resources make us 'luckiest country'
drew these comments:

Ashlee   #4   02:52 pm Aug 11 2011

Funny how the same CEO who had Solid Energy's lawyers write to Southland District Council to argue that the consents for this new coal development should NOT be publicly notified (i.e. that there should be no public discussion with the council on the issue allowed to be considered in the resource consent decision), is now complaining "We don't have discussions, we don't even have debates..."

Somewhere in the World   #3   12:39 pm Aug 11 2011

I need Don Elder to define "very easy". He uses this term over and over to describe processes that are so inefficient and cost-prohibitive that they are not done anywhere else in the world. You can't just call up Germany and get a put-together kit for these very easy things - fertiliser, underground gasification etc. like the dairy industry does for milk processing. So, New Zealand could lead the world by doing something nobody else does because it's foolish?
I was at a conference a couple of months ago that featured underground gasification, and they were all abuzz about Solid Energy's world leading technology! NOT! No mention of New Zealand at all. What a joke.
So, this Chinese fertiliser that our farmers import is made from lignite in China? Why not, isn't it the easiest thing to do? Actually, somebody should check, but I don't think that much fertiliser is imported from China.
I say we leave a big pile of debt and lignite in the ground to our kids and grandkids. See what they make of it.

coralfish   #2   10:50 am Aug 10 2011

It'd be foolish to follow the example of Australia! They are selling their richest farmland to China for mining coal seam gas and other dirty stuff! At the end of such 20 years contracts, there'll be no more coal seam gas but contaminated land and groundwater no good for anything. Is this really a future that New Zealanders want?

Anony Mous   #1   01:22 am Aug 09 2011

Don Elder is fooling himself if he seriously believes Solid Energy to be a 'world leader in underground coal gasification technology'. The statement is preposterous.