I agree with Peter. I expected to get more criticism for this article than I have received so far. Perhaps it is still to come.

In response to Curmudgeon's point about wind power, The Greens haven't yet caught up with the US wind industry's view of their own place in the world. In a DOE report titled "20% Wind Energy by 2030" put out last year and formally assessed by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) they state the following:

"Wind is an energy resource, not a capacity resource. Capacity resources are those that can be available on demand, particularly to meet system peak loads. Because only a fraction of total wind capacity has a high probability of running consistently, wind generators have limited capacity value."

and

"It is not appropriate to think in terms of “backing up” the wind because the wind capacity was installed to generate, low-emissions energy, but not to meet load growth requirements. Wind power cannot replace the need for many “capacity resources,” which are generators and dispatchable load that are available to be used when needed to meet peak load. If wind has some capacity value for reliability planning purposes, that should be viewed as a bonus, but not a necessity."

Breathtaking stuff for all those wind advocates who have worked so hard to prove that wind power can compare to conventional generators.

All of which says don't expect to decommission any coal, gas or nuclear plants to any great degree from installing lots of wind power.

mythical problems require magical solutions.

Escellent article which makes you think hard about the complexity of the issue.

The problem of myth is bigger than you think and in my view the problem is that we no longer have frank honest inquiring journos vetting our Govt .

The press is overwhelmed with extreme left journos so smitten with Rudd that truth and realism means agnosticism .

ShazBaz001,

I have to agree with examinator's general perspective on this one. Issue not about left or right. My own view is we do need to do something about environment. Strength of this article is that it provides real evidence to show why some of the grand ideas are problematic.

Chris Lewis

So the publics distorted view matters not .

I am not rooting for Turnbull , I am questioning the Independence and Integrity of our free(?) Press .