https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/27/scathing-report-into-nsw-coal-seam-gas-regulation-could-create-new-hurdles-for-santos-project
[Domino. This would not have been a speedbump in Australia in the
high-demand days of just a year or two ago.
links in online article]
Scathing report into NSW coal seam gas could create new hurdles for
Santos Narrabri project
Failure to fully implement 14 of 16 recommendations to regulate CSG
extraction could lead to more support for moratorium across NSW
Anne Davies
Thu 27 Feb 2020
Santos’s coal seam gas project near Narrabri could face further
obstacles after a parliamentary inquiry delivered a scathing assessment
of the state government’s progress in implementing recommendations to
regulate coal seam gas extraction.
A New South Wales legislative council inquiry found that 14 of 16
recommendations from the 2014 report by the chief scientist have not
been implemented in full. Half were found to have not been implemented
at all.
This included recommendations for a world-class single regulatory regime
for CSG extraction in NSW, developing an environmental data portal,
making the Environmental Protection Agency the lead regulator of the
industry, developing clear rules on access to farmers’ land and rules
around compensation, and developing a system to consult with communities.
The findings are likely to increase support for a legislative moratorium
on coal seam gas across in NSW which was proposed by independent MP
Justin Field last year. He plans to put it forward again in March.
Labor and the minor parties are now more likely to support the
moratorium – Labor took this policy to the March 2019 election – but to
become law it would require support from the Coalition, which controls
the lower house.
This will particularly put pressure on the Nationals especially from the
north-west of the state.
Coal seam gas projects have been widely opposed by farming communities
in NSW because of concerns about the impact on underground water tables
and the use of chemicals to assist in fracking the layers that contain
the gas.
In 2015, following widespread protests, the NSW government asked the
state’s chief scientist to make recommendations to ensure that industry
could safely extract coal seam gas.
The NSW gas plan was implemented in 2015, including a ban on gas
extraction in the northern rivers region.
Santos’s plans to extract gas in the Pilliga region of north-west NSW
and near Gloucester and in the Sydney basin remained on the table and
were subject to the recommendations in the plan. Several projects have
since been abandoned, but the Santos project at Narrabri is still
proceeding.
It is currently under consideration by the Department of Planning which
is expected to make a recommendation on the project, either way, during
March.
It will then go to an Independent Planning Commission to formally
determine whether the project should be approved. The IPC, which takes
public submissions, rarely goes against the department’s recommendation.
Lock the Gate Alliance called for an immediate halt to the assessment of
the Narrabri CSG project.
Spokesperson Georgina Wood said: “We’re calling for an immediate halt to
any further assessment of the Narrabri CSG project in light of this
scathing report, which found landholders are left to bear the risks of
CSG because the industry is uninsurable.”
“The NSW government must not approve the Narrabri project when we now
know that the measures that the chief scientist said were needed to
control CSG are not in place,” she said.
Chairman of the committee, Mark Banasiak, from the Shooters and Fishers
party, described the report as “an important check and balance” on the
government’s plans.
“While the committee acknowledges the efforts of the government to date
in implementing these recommendations there is clearly more work to be
done,” he said.
“Where the committee has identified that the government has not
implemented the recommendations of the NSW chief scientist in full, we
have recommended that all outstanding aspects of each recommendation be
implemented.”
Last month the NSW government struck an $2bn agreement with the federal
government to assist with funding in the transition to renewable energy.
But part of that agreement included a commitment by NSW to inject a
further 70 petajuoules of gas into the eastern seaboard gas market, more
than a 50% increase on current use by NSW.
This could be achieved by importing gas from the west – NSW is building
a new gas terminal at Port Kembla – but it could also be achieved
through Santos’s controversial coal seam gas project.
Spokesperson Georgina Wood said: “We’re calling for an immediate halt to
any further assessment of the Narrabri CSG project in light of this
scathing report, which found landholders are left to bear the risks of
CSG because the industry is uninsurable.”
“The NSW government must not approve the Narrabri project when we now
know that the measures that the chief scientist said were needed to
control CSG are not in place,” she said.
Chairman of the committee, Mark Banasiak, from the Shooters and Fishers
party, described the report as “an important check and balance” on the
government’s plans.
“While the committee acknowledges the efforts of the government to date
in implementing these recommendations there is clearly more work to be
done,” he said.
“Where the committee has identified that the government has not
implemented the recommendations of the NSW chief scientist in full, we
have recommended that all outstanding aspects of each recommendation be
implemented.”
Last month the NSW government struck an $2bn agreement with the federal
government to assist with funding in the transition to renewable energy.
But part of that agreement included a commitment by NSW to inject a
further 70 petajuoules of gas into the eastern seaboard gas market, more
than a 50% increase on current use by NSW.
This could be achieved by importing gas from the west – NSW is building
a new gas terminal at Port Kembla – but it could also be achieved
through Santos’s controversial coal seam gas project.
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