“Listening to Julia Gillard’s meaningless pledge to deliver a “clean-energy economy”, it appears that the Prime Minister is deliberately ignoring a key energy report published by the government just last year.
Does Gillard appreciate that, with respect to greenhouse gases, every 2,000 MW of gas-fired baseload generation provided is equal to the construction of another Kogan Creek power station, the latest and most efficient coal-burning plant in Australia, commissioned in 2007? And that building about 20,000 MW of new baseload gas-fired generation to meet projected 2030 requirement is the equivalent, in emissions terms, of constructing 10 more Kogan Creeks?”
This excellent article by Orchison, explains about the govt’s total lack of commitment to renewable energy. http://www.businessspectator.com.au:80/bs.nsf/Article/Julia-Gillard-clean-energy-CEDA-pd20110202-DP67F?OpenDocument&src=kgb
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THE Planning Minister, Tony Kelly, has given the strongest sign yet that the state government would ban the use of a group of chemicals in the controversial technique known as fracking to extract coal seam gas.
The vice president of the NSW Farmers Association, Fiona Simson, said the scoping paper was ”too little, too late” and was designed to assist the coal industry, not other industries.
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Earlier last year Landline reported on the extraordinary impact the booming coal seam gas industry was having on rural Queensland. The Federal and State Governments have since signed off on multi-billion dollar export projects that will take the industry to a new level of investment and production.
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“If not adequately managed and regulated, the industry risks significant, long-term and adverse impacts on surface and ground-water systems,” Ms Munroe (National Water Commissioner) said.
She said mining should operate under the same rules applied to other water users.
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A STRING of Coalition MPs appears to have promoted the cause of a coal-seam gas company headed by former Nationals leader John Anderson.
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Nine coalmines and two coal seam gas operations have released water “outside of their Environmental Authority conditions” in recent weeks.
The department said it was investigating all of the releases “and will take enforcement action where necessary”.
The government has changed its reporting procedures since facing heavy criticism after 10 mining sites spilled poisonous material when overrun by the biggest floods in decades in 2008.
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Queensland’s environmental regulator the Department of Resource Management (DERM) is powerless to stop flood waters creating massive pollution from mine sites across the state.
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ONE of the world’s biggest merchant banks has raised serious questions about the reliability and safety of the $50 billion coal seam gas industry, citing the potential for large, uncontrolled gas releases. The National Water Commission has claimed Queensland underground aquifers could be depleted and take centuries to recover because of gas extraction. Now a […]
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Companies seeking to exploit the lucrative NSW coal seam gas reserves are likely to face a new federal regulatory barrier as the independent MP Tony Windsor prepares to use his balance-of-power position to require region-wide water assessments before new mining proceeds.
Farmers and environmental groups have called for a mining moratorium until fears about groundwater contamination are resolved.
On Friday the national water commissioner, Chloe Munro, said the coal seam gas industry needed to be better managed because it could have a ”significant” impact on surface and groundwater.
She said the commission believed coal seam gas developers should operate under the same rules as other water users.
Last month the Water Minister, Tony Burke, approved $35 billion worth of coal seam gas projects in Queensland, but documents released later showed his department had ”significant concerns” about it and said the gas extraction could have implications for the Murray-Darling Basin.
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The States are too enthusiastic in approval processes that will bring revenue, jobs and electoral hope.
The science and distribution of aquifers and other groundwater systems is rudimentary. Yet the coal seam gas sector and indeed the mining industry are currently exempt from the National Water Initiative which is responsible for water reform and water security. The water management rules which apply to every other industry, do not apply to the one sector that needs more regulation than any other.
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Alan Jones speaks to Senator Bill Heffernan about coal seam gas mining