On
August 13 a Bill dealing with significant protection from coal seam gas (CSG)
and other unconventional gas mining was put before the Legislative Council, the
Upper House of the NSW Parliament. If
this Bill, proposed by the Greens and amended by the ALP, passes the Upper
House it will be considered in the Lower House.
There are
three major aims of the Bill. The first
is to impose an immediate moratorium on all unconventional gas exploration. The
second is to create permanent no-go zones in the Northern Rivers, in key
drinking water catchments and recharge areas of the Great Artesian Basin, in
the Pilliga, in prime farmland and critical industry clusters. The third is to
ensure that key recommendations made by the NSW Chief Scientist are
implemented.
Locals
who are concerned about the unconventional gas industry will be watching with
interest to see what the Government does if the Bill passes the Upper House and
goes to the Lower House for debate. They
will also be very interested in the responses of our local MPs.
This is
happening at a time when the NSW Government is negotiating the buy-back of
Petroleum Exploration Licences (PELs) in NSW, buy-backs which have been motivated
by voter backlash at the March state election where Ballina was won by the
Greens and other Northern Rivers sitting members suffered reduced majorities.
While
there have already been some buy-backs in other parts of the state, there have
been none yet in the Northern Rivers. Clarence Valley activists are
particularly concerned about PEL 426 which covers a large area of the Clarence
Valley.
Interestingly
this Metgasco licence expired in February 2014.
Despite this, it seems that the Government is either unwilling or unable
to revoke it. Community members regard it as decidedly strange that an expired
licence (particularly one expiring over a year ago) cannot be automatically
revoked removing the threat of gas-mining to our area.
It will
be very interesting to see whether this and other Northern Rivers PELs are
bought back by the Government or can be revoked if they have expired.
Leonie
Blain
This post was originally published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Daily Examiner on 10 August, 2015.
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