Domestically there is no practical way to achieve green house targets without it.

It is unfortunate that most arguments (for and against nuclear energy) take the form of extreme religious belief. There can be no compromise and to do anything other than fence site would be political suicide in Australia.

A serious debate on the actual risks of using (and avoiding) nuclear energy would be good ..... but how would you keep the lunatics and their various vitriolic wheelbarrows out of the debating chamber?

Eventually there will be an underlying shift in public opinion and the stuff WILL COME OUT of the ground. But I'm not holding my breath and neither are investors it seems. The current impasse leaves us with Old King Coal's CO2 or no heating at all.

Regrettably, standing in the way of the few political practioners who actually have a view on energy policy and making best use of Australia's tremendous resources in an energy-hungry world are:

a professional political class that seems to have about a 30-second attention span for any issue other than the 24 hour news spin cycle, their re-election prospects, and who is going to knife them in the meantime for pre-selection from their own respective teams

and

a public sector that seems largely at a loss to connect where the wealth in this country that pays for the largesse comes from and hostage to particular anti-development agendas

Agendas emphasised by the Geraldton resident you met who looks to 'the now' and sees CO2 emissions as a bigger threat than the doubtless near panic which probably embraced Geraldton in 1942 when invasion seemed a realistic if not likely prospect !?

And if we look to add one area to the debate I don't recall seeing touched upon elsewhere.

Recall that, in part, the dark events of 1941 and 1942 were triggered by the aggressor states seeking to put their boot on resources they felt were needed and only obtainable by force, being denied to them in other channels ( not justifyng them - just pointing out there is precedent for aggressive aquisition of resources ).

So come the day that Bob Brown and Christine Milne carry your Geraldton friend's concerns to their desired conclusion and we kill most of our energy and extractive minerals industries to 'save the world' - I just hope the three of them will be standing at the end of the wharf in Gerladton to explain their logic to any of our northern Asian neighbours and customers who might not share The Greens' view that we are actually doing them a favour by turning off the strategic resources tap to them.

It would be amazing for a major corporation to walk away from a $2 billion investment on a spurious assumption on an electoral and political outcome that will no doubt be clarified within a few months.