Monday, March 26

A half-baked solution to CSG concerns

In NSW the last 12 months has seen a quantum leap in government focus on coal seam gas.

In December 2010, the then-Labor NSW state government introduced a moratorium on gas well fracking. They also told the NSW Office of Water to regulate the water impacts of gas exploration, which to that time had been the sole domain of the Mineral Resources Section of the Department of Industry and Investment.

Since 2010 the federal government has used the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to regulate operational CSG projects in Queensland, but since NSW only has one operational field, the Camden project, it has had little impact in NSW.

In late 2011, in a deal with Tony Windsor as part of the carbon trading scheme, the federal government introduced the National Partnership Agreement for the Regulation of Coal Seam Gas (NPACSG). This provides national oversight of CSG projects in areas where the federal government has (limited) regulatory authority under the constitution. Most regulatory authority resides with the state government.

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Business Spectator

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