“But a seam of black rock lies nearly a mile beneath the topsoil he has so scrupulously nurtured, and the deposit contains enormous quantities of natural gas. Profit-hungry energy companies — and the politicians that their campaign donations support — are determined to exploit that resource, even though it could destroy the livelihoods of thousands of small farmers like Jaffe.”
A gas well blowout spilled thousands of gallons of hydraulic fracking drilling fluid water in the US state of Pennsylvania, state and local regulators said.
Alan Jones talks with Fiona Simson (of NSW Farmers) and Senator Bill Heffernan, about Australian food security, and says this is the gravest issue he has ever addressed. He talks of how our governments are virtually turning Australia into a giant mine, with no thought at all for the future.
The methane escape is only one of three major CSG cost externalities which will be paid for by the community whilst the companies bank their profits; the other two are health and water contamination.
Old holes made in search of oil and gas have been abandoned but may be providing paths for contamination to creep up.
Last year, oil and gas operators drilled almost 45,000 new wells across the United States, and that number is expected to hold steady or increase as the nation tries to wean itself from foreign oil. If even a small fraction of those wells is eventually abandoned, states will be left with the bill, just as they were when the last boom ended in the mid-1980s.
THE Great Artesian Basin Co-ordinating Committee has called for tighter regulation of mining and exploration in the area. There has been a dramatic increase in exploration and drilling, particularly for coal-seam gas, in the basin in recent years. The fear is that drilling will break water-bearing seams, causing contamination and water loss.
“We are being told it is all under control, but we don’t have enough evidence to satisfy ourselves that it won’t jeopardise the GAB in certain areas forever.”
Coal seam gas extraction is the latest environmental battleground. Amidst the protests about land access, is the question of whether one of Australia’s geological and cultural icons is at risk.
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Coal and coal seam gas mining are expanding at an unprecedented rate, threatening our farmland, our communities, and mostly our water. Join environmentalists, farmers and concerned citizens from across NSW to take action to protect our irreplaceable farmland and water.
This election, demand your politicians put communities ahead of mining profits.
Food before coal. Water before gas. For our land, our water and our future.
The race between multinational companies (facilitated by government) to get this gas out of the ground threatens the industry’s very development. If the CSG industry is worth so much to Australians, surely ensuring its safe, sustainable and timely development should be a matter of national importance.
This should never be portrayed as a David and Goliath battle. It’s not about who wins or loses. If we get this industry development wrong we all lose.
There was much fallout from the 4 Corners Show of a couple of weeks ago which investigated the level of gas exploration and coal seam gas mining in Australia
It raised concerns about the transparency of the coal seam gas industry, the impact on farming operations and the inability of farmers to halt the progress of wells on their land once it started – amongst other things.
Fracking hell: Busting the natural gas myth