Power as a tax

As I've been trying to sift through the debates around energy, I keep coming back to this: the government needs to keep us using energy - their livelihood depends on it.

What do I mean? Well, despite repeated encouragements to buy energy-efficient appliances, turn off appliances that aren't being used, and, until recently, to invest in household solar, things have now reached a tipping point.

Energy use has decreased at over 10% for the last three years, whereas investment in the grid is $50bn, in what they fear are now 'stranded assets'. For every person that installs solar with no government feed-in tariff, that turns off lights, that upgrades to more efficient appliances, there are less kilowatt hours to spread the massive costs of the gold-plated poles and wires on to. And as the costs increase, so too do consumers do all they can to decrease their dependency.

But there are government guarantees (that energy companies can charge what they need to recover costs), there are taxes on privatised energy companies, there are always the jobs (gotta save the jobs!), and there are agreements, back-room or otherwise, relating to coal mines and power generation that need to be honoured.

But if it is a tax, and if decentralised, personal or community-based power generation and storage is the future, then why not just tax us, get involved, and do everything possible to move away from the whole damned coal/gas/petrol/nuclear industry to things which have a future.

Amos 8-9 Chiasm

Here's my structure of Amos 8.1-9.10. I think it works pretty well.


A  8.1-2 vision of summer fruit - ready to be eaten

     B1  8.3-8 in that day - songs will be wailing
     B2  8.9-10 in that day - songs into weeping

               C  8.11-12 the days are coming - famine of the word

     B'  8.13-14 in that day - they will fall

A' 9.1-10 vision of the Lord by the altar - everything will be shaken

bookends are the visions,

inside are 'in that day'

and centremost is 'the days are coming'

I think this fits quite well with the whole picture of Amos - having so thoroughly rejected the word of God, God is now handing them over to their sinful desires. Having desired to be free of God's word, he is now deliberately withholding it, with all that goes along with that. This is indeed a dire judgement.

Letters to the editor (SMH) March 5-7

Wednesday:

Surely the conservative call for the freedom to spout offensive racist hate speech would be more convincing if it were matched by a similar call for the freedom to marry whomever you wished, regardless of gender, or the freedom to end your own life with dignity? Or is it that all freedoms are good, but some are better than others?

Sunil Badami Rozelle

Thursday:

In advocating for unfettered freedoms, Sunil Badami (Letters, March 5) does not go far enough. Why just advocate for freedom to marry whomever one wished, without also delimiting however many? Why should polygamists be denied legal access and rights to marriage in Australia? Lifting restrictions on polygamy will help do away with angst about adultery and extra-marital affairs, no?

Hendry Wan Rosebery

Friday:*

On marriage, Hendry Wan (Letters, March 6) makes a good point. We as a society need to determine whether marriage is a good thing for society or not. If the marriage between a man and a woman, the stability and trust it brings, including a secure place to nurture children, if this is truly a bad thing, we should do away with it holus bolus. Otherwise, we need to confess that the permutations, such as multiple marriages (either serial or concurrent) are in fact harmful and we need to redouble our efforts to defend marriage. 

Douglas Fyfe Carlingford

*they probably won't publish it, but I thought I'd have a crack.