'Conflict of interest': Calls for Barnaby Joyce to sell CSG-linked land

Barnaby Joyce has been accused of a conflict of interest due to claims he could personally benefit from the Turnbull government's push to develop coal seam gas near land owned by the Deputy Prime Minister.

Property owned by Barnaby Joyce near Gwabegar,
described by locals as "mongrel country", fit for goats
 and not much else.

Mr Joyce, who is also the Resources Minister, missed a media event on Monday where the government demanded NSW accelerate approval of the Santos project at Narrabri, north-west of Sydney, to ease a looming gas shortage. He lists land at Gwabegar, west of Narrabri as part of his pecuniary interests.

While Mr Joyce said on Tuesday there is no prospect of gas being extracted on his land, local activists opposed to coal seam gas development say petroleum exploration licences all through the region depend on progress at Narrabri.  

The Nationals leader bought two blocks of about 1000 hectares in "mongrel country" of poor economic value in 2006 and 2008 for a reported $572,000.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “‘Conflict of interest': Calls for Barnaby Joyce to sell CSG-linked land.”

Queensland community action prevents Santos from freely dumping coal seam gas waste

 Independent Expert Scientific Committee warned
environment minister Josh Frydenberg of
 ‘considerable scientific uncertainty about
potential impacts on surface water’. 

Legal action by a Queensland community group has forced the federal government to stop Santos freely dumping coal seam gas waste water in Surat Basin rivers and streams.

A federal court challenge by the Western Downs Alliance has prompted the minister for environment and energy, Josh Frydenberg, to revamp his approval of the Santos gasfield development, in what has been hailed as a victory in protecting the Dawson river.

The case was set down to be heard by the full bench of the federal court next month, in what was to be the first legal test of the “water trigger” in Australia’s environmental laws, which requires the minister to consider the impact of a resources project on local waterways.

Read Joshua Robertson’s story on The Guardian - “Queensland community action prevents Santos from freely dumping coal seam gas waste.”

How will CSG extraction affect groundwater in the next 50 years?

A landholder representative group has welcomed the results of a new Government report that predicts the impact of the Coal Seam Gas industry on groundwater reserves in Coal Seam Gas through to 2065.

Read the story at Beef Central.

 

Debate about what U.S. emissions levelled off

T

he 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) saw the world’s carbon dioxide emissions measurably fall.

Those addicted to the idea of endless growth reason that fact away just as they are doing with the world’s present economic difficulties arguing that a slowing of America’s emissions is directly connected to the use of unconventional gas.

The Conversation considered this question and arrived at the conclusion that the levelling off in U.S. emissions was the culmination of many things.

Read the story - “FactCheck Q&A: Did coal seam gas or the economic downturn cause US carbon emissions to level off?”

Communities take on coal seam gas companies

M

any see coal seam gas as a “bridging’ energy source as we wean ourselves off coal and oil.

That view, however, is misguided and yet encouraged by the CSG enthusiasts, for gas sourced in that manner is equally damaging to our environment as any other fossil fuel.

Beyond that, and further worsening the process is the physical damage it does to in the areas of exploration, its excess use of water (an increasingly rare commodity in Australia), the disruption it causes in communities it visits and worst of all the escaping rogue gasses put it right up there with the worst of the fossil fuels.

Newcastle Herald writer, Julie Lyford, has written a piece about CSG - “OPINION: ​‘Chosen’ CSG communities will not sit still”.

Urgent need for fossil fuels drives us to extremes

Society’s urgent need to find more fossil fuels is driving us to extremes.

One of those extremes is our search for coal seam gas; a search that has taken explorative companies to the edges, and under, communities.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Hannam tells his reader that “CSG more trouble than it's worth for AGL”.

Hannam reports: “Back in December 2013, when Hunter Water, the state agency managing Newcastle's sewage network, learned energy giant AGL was seeking a place to dispose of wastewater from a pilot coal seam gas field, its management wanted none of it.

“For one thing, the gas field was about 100 kilometres to the north of Hunter Water's zone, and the agency's policy was to reject external waste. More to the point, it viewed the dangers as too high to rely on local waste processing sites to remove all potentially harmful chemicals before discharging the remaining water into its network.”

CSG advocates simply waiting for lifting of Victorian moratorium

The arrival of coal seam gas production in Victoria appeared a given at a Melbourne conference yesterday.

Nearly 100 people gathered in the Victoria Suites at the Collins St Sofitel Hotel for a Deakin University organized event. “The Promised Land: The Future of Coal Seam Gas in Victoria”.

The conference had an obvious leaning toward the law and its relationship to coal seam gas and was overseen by an associate professor from the university’s School of Law, Samantha Hepburn.

Conference promotional material promised the chance to explore social, environmental and social issues surrounding the idea of coal seam gas (CSG).

An impressive array of nearly 20 speakers, along with questions to a panel of four speakers from seven Deakin law students, gave those who attended much to think about as Victoria edges closer to the lifting of its moratorium on coal seam gas drilling.

Although it is unknown when the moratorium will be lifted, some with intimate knowledge of the political machinations of CSG believe restrictions on the State Government pause on exploration and development associated with the industry will be lifted at next year’s state election.

With few exceptions, there appeared broad acceptance that the moratorium would be lifted and that Victorians would he introduced to coal seam gas.

Lakes Oil executive chairman, Robert Annells, questioned the validity  of views of CSG skeptics arguing that if any serious troubles were to be found, they most certainly would have arisen in Texas in the U.S. sere thousands of wells have been fracked.

Mr Annells pointed to examples that clearly illustrated that many of those things critics attribute to fracking are already a part of nature and not a well has been fracked in Victoria.

He indicated the Lakes Oil was ready to go, just as soon as the moratorium is lifted.

The introduction of CSG would, according to Mr Annells, mean jobs and security for those parts of Victoria in which the projects were undertaken.

However, questioning long term and innate value of CSG the chairman of the Land Management Committee for the National Farmers' Federation, Mr Gerald Leach, said the potential damage to farms because of fracking was “alarming”.

Interestingly, Beyond Zero Emissions has argued that the best place for hydro-carbons, considered by some to be the driving force of the modern developed world, is in the ground.

The group which has extensive and comprehensive plans for seeing an Australia free of carbon dioxide emissions is opposed to the use of gas, conventional otherwise, for any purpose and so is unhappy about any maintenance of or expansion of the CSG industry.

Gas is simply a fossil fuel and any worthwhile effort to mitigate climate change could not it as an energy source.

The CSG industry is an integral part of the “business-as-usual” paradigm and so is in direct conflict with any serious effort directed at climate change abatement.

Distant past can determine today's behaviour

Frequently the distant past helps us determine how we should behave today.

Stygofauna, highly specialized organisms that have been around for millions of years, look likely to seriously disrupt Santos’ biggest coal seam gas project in the New South Wales Pilliga Forest.

Those concerned about the almost certain contamination of the area’s aquifers by hydraulic process used to access the natural gas will be celebrating the existence of the stygofauna.

The ABC reported today about the Pilliga project in it story headed: “Ancient stygofauna could halt Santos’ Pilliga coal seam gas project”.