Qld coal combats energy poverty

FEBRUARY 25, 2015: THE coal produced by Queensland miners can help lift millions of people out of poverty, and yet there are still extreme green attempts  to shut down the coal industry.This extreme green agenda is not only killing jobs for Queensland families and foregoing billions of dollars in government revenue but keeping millions of people in energy poverty.The World Bank notes that access to energy is ‘absolutely fundamental in the struggle against poverty. It is energy that lights the lamp that lets you do your homework, that keeps the heat on in a hospital, that lights the small business where most people work’.It’s a hypocritical stance for the extreme greens to deny the poorest people in the world the opportunity to enjoy even a tiny fraction of the benefits they enjoy while sitting in their leafy inner city suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney.[box style="1 or 2"] India and China are trying to expand their electricity networks as fast as they can but they are struggling to keep up.India has extended the reach of its grid to an average 24 million more people each year – and they haven’t done it with solar panels – and yet 306 million people in India remain without electricity.In China, 612 million people – nearly twice the population of the United States – don’t have clean fuel for cooking and heating.If they don’t have clean fuel for cooking and heating, they are forced to resort to other means.According to an article by National Geographic in 2013, about 3.5 million people, mainly women and children, die each year from respiratory illness due to harmful indoor air pollution from wood and biomass cooking stoves.[/box]Mining communities like ours should be proud of the part we can play in lifting millions of people out of poverty.We have abundant resources and some of the cleanest coal in the world so it would appear to be a fantastic win-win situation.It is a great shame and an indictment on the extreme greens that having enjoyed all the benefits of the industrial revolution and cheap energy for decades, the poorest people in the world are being told to stay in poverty.LINK TO SPEECH - http://youtu.be/OCyOLTXkhRg