The Senate inquiry into coal seam gas has issued a remarkable
rebuke to drillers and revenue-hungry state governments. What's even more
striking? All political parties agree it's time to stop, writes Ben Eltham
As wildcat booms go, it has been a doozy. Coal seam gas exploration took many
years to get underway in Australia, and we came to the party somewhat later than
the continental United States. But once the invitations went out, mining
companies turned up in their droves, drilling thousands of exploration wells all
over inland Australia.
Radio National’s Ian Townsend filed a report on the gas rush in mid-2010. It gives a flavour of
the excitement in the coal seam export industry at the time. Townsend talked to
a rural consultant named George Houen who told him that "people have to realise
that we’re sitting on probably one of the greatest energy provinces in the
world, and between the coal and the coal-seam gas, we have a resource here which
is obviously going to be exploited for its value to the country".
The New Matilda
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