I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

As we slowly emerge into a post-COVID world, I've been preoccupied with the choices we make about the future we want for our children and grandchildren.

One of those choices is about the best sort of energy use in a warming planet.

Here in Bathurst, we are in the driving seat to help make this choice.

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Here are the alternatives.

On the one hand, 400 kilometres to our north near Narrabri, the NSW Planning Department has approved the mining of coal seam gas over 95,000 hectares of farmland and Pilliga forest by Australian gas company, Santos.

This month, Bathurst Community Climate Action Network (BCCAN) will be making a submission to the Independent Planning Commission which will make the final approval decision.

On the other hand, closer to home, we have the proposal by French renewables company Neoen to build the 200 megawatt Windradyne Solar Farm on 500 hectares of farmland north of Eglinton.

Both proposals will support regional employment in their construction phase, but that is where the similarity ends.

After its construction, the solar farm will be virtually emissions free.

But the gas proposal would entrench fossil fuels into our energy future well beyond mid-century.

It would make moving to an emissions-free future in Australia that much harder.

There would be 850 gas wells flaring 24/7. "Fugitive" emissions escaping from cracks in the rock seams caused by drilling could contribute both to climate change and to bushfire risk.

The solar farm would use very little water, whereas Santos proposes drilling directly above the recharge zone of the Great Artesian Basin, thus endangering the water supply of NSW's food bowl.

In the process, Santos will remove over 30 billion litres of water and the treatment of that water will produce up to 840,000 tonnes of solid salt waste, laced with heavy metals.

The Windradyne Solar Farm will produce little waste except for the panels themselves, which will need to be recycled at the end of their 20-30 year life.

The Santos proposal would involve clearing hundreds of kilometres for roads and pipelines connecting the gas wells, thereby obstructing agricultural activities and interfering with the habitats of endangered flora and fauna.

It would be death by a thousand small cuts to endangered animals like pygmy possums and Pilliga mice.

At Eglinton, however, merino sheep will probably graze underneath the shade of the large Windradyne Solar Farm on land that is already mostly cleared for pastoral use.

We might trust Santos' intentions and ability to minimise the damage caused by its mining, but it seems unnecessary to take these risks.

No energy project will be perfect, but the Windradyne Solar Farm points the direction to a better, clean energy, sustainable future. Bathurst is on the right road!