This summer peak tension has been a recurring problem especially in the past decade due to the high take-up of air conditioning in inadequately constructed buildings. The shrill and shallow mantra from Tony Abbott et al that the grid would fail "when the sun don't shine" is once again revealed for the fake news it always was. More solar is required in mid-summer to keep the lights on and prop up homes with insufficient insulation.

NECESSITY is the mother of speedy invention. Our drug companies have invented three viable vaccines to reduce the toll of COVID-19 within 18 months. Given enough encouragement, energy companies can produce clean, cheap, dispatchable power to replace power produced by our coal-burning power stations such as Liddell. Economics and technology will trump the Coalition's ideological obsession with fossil fuel ('Cleaner, greener options', Newcastle Herald 28/11)

Our future lies in green hydrogen produced by electrolysis on solar and wind farms. This may be stored and piped to hydrogen-burning power stations to produce dispatchable power for industrial and domestic use. At present big batteries do not store enough power to do this. Pumped hydro will never have enough capacity to meet power demand, given available water and Australia's terrain.

The Narrabri gas field project touted and promoted by the federal Coalition is a stupid investment. It will destroy the water table under good farmland. According to Malcolm Turnbull, methane gas is "BS" and "piffle". The whole enterprise is likely to end up as a stranded asset, with the exception of the pipeline, which may be used to pump green hydrogen down to power stations. Hopefully, the taxpayer will not have to pay for a bail-out in the future.

In the far distant future, technology will do away with our solar and wind farms and replace our hydrogen-burning power stations with clean power of the sun: nuclear power stations that fuse atoms rather than split them.

IF President Trump loses the presidency in the Supreme Court I think he will resign and make Mike Pence the 46th POTUS. This can pardon all of the Trumps, and the icing on the cake is that Donald will not have to attend Joe Biden's inauguration in January.

IT appears that the old saying "let a bully get away with it and they only get worse" is true, so when are we going to take some action against China? The world knows that without Australian iron ore and coal they are not able to control the markets worldwide with their manufactured goods and building expansions. So our government should take a small action on them by adding a 10 per cent per ton tax on all purchases of our resources, and an import tax of 15 per cent on all Chinese manufactured items.

We allow them to make statements about our SAS but do not mention the actions of their armed forces in the wars that they have been involved in since World War II.

They who have reportedly killed their own people with very little reason then believe they have the right to comment about our troops in a war zone.

HAVING just watched Insiders on ABC, and seeing British cricket journalist Ali Donaldson participating from quarantine in her hotel room, I ask myself if the government is fair dinkum by ascertaining Aussies will be at the head of the queue for passengers entering Australia. While I have the greatest respect for Ali Donaldson, it seems that there are rules for some and not for others.

I understand that the numbers entering our shores are subject to the availability of quarantine accommodation so why are we not utilising the wonderful facilities on Christmas Island? I cannot imagine repatriating Aussies knocking back an opportunity to spend 14 days in a tropical paradise before returning to their home state or territory once they have completed their quarantine obligations on Australian soil.

PORK barrelling is made possible by Australia's electoral system, based on single member electoral districts. Many Australians are not aware of alternatives. In multi-member district systems, used with proportional representation - party list, pork barreling is not doable. This system is practised in 89 countries. Apart from that advantage, there are no by-elections. Voters have one vote only but a greater choice of parties. Above all, it is a much fairer system in that parties gain seats in proportion to the votes they receive. Proportional representation also promotes cooperation between parties, to achieve majority government, resulting in a quite different culture as compared to the adversarial battles that characterise "politics" in Australia.

I AM just sitting in my local watering hole enjoying a refreshment, watching some non-local young people (schoolies) trying to follow these ridiculous government rules. This place is big; we have had no COVID cases anywhere near here for a very long time. Stop the scare and let our local amenities get on with business.

Sean Moore wrote a respectful letter regarding our SAS soldiers (Letters 26/11). On the same page John Ure and Bevan Ramsden wrote letters I found somewhat disrespectful of Australian military history. Mr Ure made a dubious comparison of the SAS allegations with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Those bombings were made only after Japan continually refused to surrender. That's because at least 100,000 casualties were estimated to result from an invasive brutal long campaign to take the islands of Japan. The only irony is that some people who have benefited greatly from that bombing decision now question that act. Mr Ramsden claimed that the allied invasion of Afghanistan was illegal and a war crime. Al Qaeda, who were widely recognised as the perpetrators of the 9/11 bombings in the US and other terrorist crimes, had sanctuary in Afghanistan. The Taliban government of Afghanistan refused to expel them even after official pleas. There was very little international opposition to the invasion of Afghanistan to deal with Al Qaeda. An old saying states "If you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas". The world can well do without the dogs of terrorism and their fleas.

NO matter what the statistics or records say, this weather is frightening and changing in an unpredictable and exponential way ('Summer sweater', Newcastle Herald 30/11). I hope we start getting on with Mother Earth and stop unsettling her.

PORK barrelling may not be illegal, Ms Berejiklian, but it is immoral. Because everyone does it does not make it right. We think poorly of all who distribute our money with ulterior motives rather than on need.

IT'S always heartening to receive a compliment, but particularly so when it comes from an unexpected quarter. I'm therefore indebted to Greg Hunt for so graciously drawing attention to my "woke" ideology (Short Takes, 26/11). After all, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines woke as "aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)". I choose to take Mr Hunt's gesture as a sign that he might at some stage offer something woke of his own. If he did, I'd be the first to compliment him.

COME on, Renata Pepper (Letters, 24/11). Brad Fittler in the first State of Origin had at one time three five-eighths and a fullback on the field, and this did not include the fullback or wings. I think this would have been Brad's decision. NSW should start picking players who are best in their club positions. For three games Wighton from Canberra was totally lost at left centre, even though he was the Dally M player of the year. He won this award playing in his position as five-eighth. This case is closed

JULIE Robinson delivered a scathing attack on President Donald J Trump (Letters, 27/11). Ms Robinson and I would probably agree on many adjectives that could describe Mr Trump. However, facts still matter. He's bad enough in reality that we should be careful not to exaggerate or create untruths about him. Making a false claim about him undermines the writer's credibility. Contrary to Ms Robinson's claim, Trump has repeatedly denounced white supremacists. Please just Google "Donald Trump denounces white supremacists". Has he done it enough? Has he gone to enough trouble to make it clear? Does he really care about it? Maybe not. Maybe he ends up diluting his condemnation with other messages. But he has definitely and clearly denounced white supremacists repeatedly.

WOW. Hewson's view ('National interests should come before party', Opinion 27/11), the editorial ('COVID complicates bushfire season', Editorial 27/11) and Mind Matters ('Doing the right thing creates a better world', Opinion 27/11) are the best reads ever. Keep up the good work.