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.
As expansion in the coal seam gas industry continues to boom, fears grow that the groundwater of Great Artesian Basin will be poisoned.
“So you can basically say of the 23 major chemicals used in this process, they have not been assessed by any national regulator,” Dr Lloyd-Smith said.
“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
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.
“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.
A STRING of Coalition MPs appears to have promoted the cause of a coal-seam gas company headed by former Nationals leader John Anderson.
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.
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 […]
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.
http://www.afr.com.au:80/p/national/millionaires_not_in_our_backyard_E3sB01Jq0IRg0cYNsu4zvI
Concern builds over chemicals left behind
Phillip Adams Interview with Endersbee