There was a follow up on last night's Lateline interview with...

There was a follow up on last night's Lateline interview with Mike Rann. It was mostly about water - but this last question:



TONY JONES: I've got one final question for you. We had one of the members, a very prominent member of your state, Professor Tim Flannery, Australian of the Year, on the program last night. He was talking about a potential project in the Cooper Basin, a geothermal project which he says could supply power for every industry in Australia if handled properly and treated, put on a war footing and a giant Snowy River type project could supply energy for every industry in Australia for a hundred years. Is he right?

MIKE RANN: We hope he’s right. I mean as you know, we’re sort of leading the charge on this. Fifty-one per cent of the nation's wind power is in our state, 46 per cent of the nation's solar power. We're getting 90 per cent of Australia's exploration on geothermal power, a totally emission free form of energy. Obviously it's got a long way to go yet in terms of a pilot plant but it's - people, companies are spending tens of millions of dollars and they wouldn't be spending that amount of money if they didn't think it would have dividends. But in terms of energy for Australia it would just be fantastic, Tim Flannery is right.