1. The EIS. Way back in the dreamtime and another existence, it was part of my job to instruct uni students in the gentle art of EIS assessment. I always made them ask three questions:-

a. Who is paying for it? b. What’s been left out?

c. Why has it been left out?

My point is that an EIS is never an objective document. It is paid for by vested interests to promote a particular point of view. Could I urge anybody who looks at the EIS for the charcoal plant to ask these three questions?

2. Alternative technologies. BHP Billiton is currently threatening to close down one of its Port Kembla furnaces, leading to massive job losses and the dispersal of expertise. At the same time it has just got the green light to go ahead with the first new coal mine in the Illawarra for years, which will produce high grade coking coal. Why can’t these events be coordinated with silicon production?

3. It seems that the silicon company has refused to consider using rail transport to convey its quartz pebbles from Cowra to the proposed smelter at Lithgow, in spite of the fact that the main railway parallels the route. Apparently there are some cost savings to be had by employing contract semi-trailer drivers as opposed to paying railway bulk freight rates.

As a now unfogged ratepayer, I have come to the conclusion that the whole proposal is an economic and environmental rip-off. A SHEPHERD, Braidwood.