AFTER more than 20 articles, the Newcastle Herald's Power and the Passion series has begun to set out the lie of the land, as the Hunter Region engages with a global push to phase out the burning coal.
Some in the industry may see the series as an attack on a resource that has powered the world from the age of steam to the start of the age of renewables.
Indeed, it is obvious that many of those speaking loudly about coal at present will be happy to see the back of it.
But that is not the Herald's purpose in presenting the series.
The aim of the Power and the Passion - if it can be distilled into a single idea - is to take an audit of the situation that confronts us all, and to examine the implications that must inevitably follow such a fundamental shift in the generation of energy.
Even so, a debate of this nature must accommodate differing points of view.
As we have noted in this space before, the decarbonisation of electricity generation is only at the earliest of stages, with power storage presenting more questions than answers.
That said, the flow is pretty much in one direction, even if a combination of world events have conspired to send the price of once humble Hunter thermal coal to genuinely stratospheric levels.
Today's coverage by Donna Page and Gabriel Fowler outlining the spread of open-cut mining across the Hunter Valley highlights both sides of this controversial coin.
For decades, despite environmental concerns, the scarring of the landscape was viewed, in the main, as the necessary price of economic prosperity.
Things are no longer that simple, and a forensic examination of who has been where, and how much is left in the kitty to repair the damage, shows up to 1500 square kilometres in the hands of coal companies, and a growing fear of insufficient funds to complete a comprehensive rehabilitation.
As we saw when the Rudd government tried to introduce a super-profits tax, the resources industry knows how to win a fight.
No-one is seriously advocating such a tax right now, but real-terms coal prices are higher than back then, and we're selling more of it.
We need mechanism to ensure the industry pays its environmental bills.
It's an issue that should, by rights, be a big part of this election campaign.
With a month to go, it is not too late.
ISSUE: 39,850
