HOW come terribly expensive windmills and solar panels are the shining future of Tasmanian electricity generation rather than good old-fashioned gushing H2O?
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It's a curious business this, environmentalists pushing the currently trendy concept of "renewables" yet not so keen to countenance the bleedin' obvious.
"Don't mention the water," seems to be the Greensters' stern cry.
Mind you, we have experienced many campaigns over recent decades designed to stop us enjoying cheap hydro power.
Yes, and granted this has been a tough, dry, season for eau-de-electricity the argument still holds, um, water.
Had the Franklin-below-Gordon scheme gone ahead we may not have needed to import quite so much coal-generated power from Victoria.
An estimated 38 per cent of our current needs, according to media reports.
This fevered-brow thought is inspired by a fleeting "blink and you'd miss it" televisual moment.
To truly set the scene, the attentive viewer would be well aware that banner-wielding protests are a weekly occurrence on Hobart's Parliament House lawns.
Curiously, while the banners may well change, depending on the cause de jure, the rioters' faces seem to be much the same.
Perish the thought of a rent-a-mob.
These orgies of social activism generally relate to same-sex marriage, logging, coal exports, the preservation of rare and endangered species as transmitted daily as part of the ABC's "news" agenda and where, apparently, 72 per cent of the national broadcaster's staff are Greensters or Laborites.
The visuals are usually followed by a few words on the meme of the day by, surprise, surprise, a concerned-looking Greens' leader Cassy O'Connor explaining why we should all be getting hot and bothered.
Or, latterly, Greens' Senator Nick McKim.
And so it came to pass that, while a perpetually angry vanguard wielded similar banners, amid this faux mayhem, one person held a placard announcing their opposition to a type of renewable energy.
"What's all this about?" the patient reader may well inquire, "an interloper mingling with the chattering classes opposed to the efficacy of solar and/or windmill-driven electricity?"
Well, no, not precisely.
For the aforementioned rowdy rebel wielded a poster proclaiming NO DAMS.
Where had this person been for the past 30 years?
The attention-getting announcement must at least cause some embarrassment to those who once opposed clean recyclable hydro power.
We looked more closely at the idiot box even if, in the mere seconds available, we were unable to assess whether the wielder was wearing a hand-knitted beanie, flares or a wide-collared paisley shirt.
Either way, we wondered could this sole opponent of slinging concrete structures across rivers to capture water before allowing it to run through turbines thus to light our homes was the last of a breed of those in favour of every renewable source of power but the obvious Tassie one.
It much reminded us of a late mate saddled with a peaceful, nay whimsical, approach to life who once attempted to explain at a social gathering the benefits of what is now the currently contentious subject of liquid-driven natural energy.
"For goodness sake," this furrow-browed sage announced, "they dam the water, take the electricity out of it and then let the stuff go, what's wrong with that?"
It did lead this correspondent to wonder whether some environmentalists may see the apparent irony of their former "No Dams" stance.
Perhaps not.
And furthermore to wonder what former, now late, premier and dam champion Eric Reece would have made of Victorian electricity being pumped into our state's grid.
"There, I told ya' so," "Electric Eric" would have growled.
