Editor's Note: Letter to the Editor transcribed:
Like a football match, the Coal Seam Gas battle is a game in two halves.
During the exploration phase, the companies must negotiation so called "land agreements" in order to sink wells on land they do not own.
In the Surat Basin, most landholders have simply said no, and that's why companies have bought properties in recent years and have plans to buy more.
Its going to get ugly when companies move from coal seam gas exploration to production. Once these reserves are firmed up the production phase begins, and here the legislation is weighted firmly in favour of the Gas Companies. But it is also here that the process has the potential to get very ugly for all concerned - the Gas Companies, the Government, the landowners.
A period of mass civil disobedience in parts of the Surat Basin is fast approaching. At this point the Company needs to decide if it wants to ask Police to forcibly remove demonstrators and endure all the publicity that it will involve.
The TV pictures will not be pretty and allegations of high-handed behaviour will be difficult to deflect.
From Roma to Toowoomba, that is the new reality.
Cr. Peter Marks,
Toowoomba Regional Council
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