Clean Energy Dirty Tricks? A $500 Gift Card for Signing Over Your Property Rights

Essay by Eric Worrall

Aussie Clean energy companies attempting to action the Left wing Albanese Government’s green grid expansion, appear to have turned to unsavoury practices to try to progress their agenda.

The clean energy super highway has hit a roadblock. Here’s why

Landline / By national regional affairs reporter Jane Norman

When a power giant offered Katherine Myers a $500 gift card, she had no idea she was about to give away unrestricted access to her property for the next four years.

A self-described naturally trusting person, it was only when a relative read the fine print that she realised what privately owned entity AusNet was after.

“My father-in-law went through the agreement and said, ‘No, this is actually providing unfettered access for four years for both surface [and] invasive surveys on the property’,” she says.

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Myers declined the card but the power imbalance, she says, was clear from the start.

“They told us that we could have that gift card if we signed up to voluntary access but they also told us that if we don’t, that they’ve got Section 93 powers and they’d come on our land anyway,” she says.

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Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-17/clean-energy-super-highway-hits-roadblock-farmers-lock-the-gate/102812602

The gift card was allegedly issued in relation to constructing the Western Renewables Link in the Australian state of Victoria.

In my opinion, power companies or their contractors or whichever party is responsible are out of their minds trying to pull such stunts. They need the cooperation of country folk. Most country folk are law abiding, but if they keep beating on country people through unsavoury practices, threats and legal compulsory property powers, sooner or later some of them will lose faith in the law. We could end up with the same situation as South Africa.

In South Africa, power pylon sabotage and metal theft are a big problem. Power pylons are full of valuable metal.

Eskom finds evidence of sabotage at Lethabo Power Station – pylon supports were cut

Kyle Cowan

• Eskom has found that supports attached to a pylon that toppled over near Lethabo Power Station on Wednesday, were cut.
• It is the clearest evidence yet of an orchestrated campaign to sabotage Eskom, however the motive remains unclear.
• Eskom group chief executive André de Ruyter confirmed on Friday that it pointed to sabotage.

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Eskom has, for the first time, found clear evidence that points to sabotage at its Lethabo Power Station, near Vereeniging in the Free State.

The power utility found that supports attached to a small pylon carrying power lines that feed electricity to the power station’s overland coal conveyor, were cut, which caused it to topple over onto a backup power line, rendering both inoperable.

The pylon fell just before 18:00 on Wednesday evening, immediately before evening peak demand hours. Eskom group chief executive André de Ruyter called it a “close shave” on Thursday.

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Read more: https://www.news24.com/news24/investigations/eskomfiles/breaking-eskom-finds-evidence-of-sabotage-at-lethabo-power-station-pylon-supports-were-cut-20211119

The African thieves were clever. They didn’t cut the power lines, which would have been immediately detected, they stole valuable stainless steel pylon supports – but left enough so the pylons didn’t immediately fall. When the thieves left, the power lines were still operating, which allowed the theft to go undetected until mechanical failure caused by the missing structural support members brought down the power line.

I’m not in any way advocating law breaking or sabotage, WUWT does not condone law breaking. My point is power companies need the cooperation of country folk. Thousands of miles of power line infrastructure cannot be affordably patrolled by power companies. Power companies need rural land owners to love them so much that every day the land owners themselves run a quick inspection of electricity infrastructure on their land, and willingly cooperate with catching the thieves and saboteurs.

Legalised land seizures and unsavoury practices like this gift card are not the path to win love and compliance.