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Ryan Bridge: Coal keeps the lights on · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We need to be a bit practical about this business
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of important coal. I reckon yesterday Genesis, Mercury, Meridian Contacts.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: They came together and announced they're going to stockpile up
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to six hundred thousand tons of coal to keep the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: lights on it Huntley. The coal gives us a backup
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: for when times. You know, when electricity is low, when
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the late levels are low, when the wind isn't blowing.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Huntley is the largest electricity generation site in the country,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and it needs fuel to run on. Eventually, they would
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: like it to be all biomass and green and friendly, etc.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: But in the meantime they need something reliable to keep
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: things chugging along so as we avoid another energy crunch
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: like we had last year when spot prices went berserk
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: because we realized how little gas we have in this
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: country and cue the predictable outcries of disbelief and feigned
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: shock from some quarters in reaction to this, including those
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: climate protesters. Have you seen them, who I can only
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: assume are still disrupting operations at the Stockton mine in
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the South Island, hanging from an aerial bucket with their
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: banners unfurled. Last time I saw them there was a
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: woman up there in the bucket, you know, health and
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: safety be damned, zooming into a call with a journalist.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: And she did this completely unironically, surrounded by a plethora
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of plastic in things like the cables she was using,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: her cell phone, the battery packs, the tools, even her
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: helmet plastic, plastic, plastic. She explained that coal was evil,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: of course, and would eventually ruin and kill the planet,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: never mind the fact that her presence in the bucket
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: meant that workers were now having to truck their coal
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: from one site to another using yes, you guessed it,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: diesel engines rather than the aerial rope pulley system whose
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: bucket she and her plastic fantastic friends were now occupying.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: No shame either, apparently about a helicopter flying in. This
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: was the local news reporting a helicopter flying in Yes
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: where avga Yes to check on the protest is after
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: a bit of rain. Paul thinks. The reality is this.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Nobody's saying coal is amazing and it's the only solution
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: to our problem, and let's burn it till we all burn.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I've not heard anyone say that. They're just saying we
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: need this reliable fuel to tide us over till we
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: don't need it anymore. If the choice is to either
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: burn coal or have a cold shower, I know what
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I'm doing, and let's not forget that even if we
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: did stop digging up coal and using it to heat
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: our homes occasionally, some other country far away would be
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: doing exactly that anyway. For more from Earlily Edition with
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talk Set B from
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.