AUSTRALIA'S $60 billion coal-seam gas industry is a "relatively short-term prospect" and may not be worth the cost to agriculture and the environment, a parliamentary inquiry has found.
The most searching examination to date of the emerging sector's regulation and impact, by a Senate committee, recommends that CSG development be suspended in areas tapping the Great Artesian Basin in Queensland and NSW, because of the contamination threat to underground water.
It warns that production approvals for a vast network of gas wells, refineries and bulk export terminals in Queensland were "given prematurely", and questions whether the state's "adaptive management" of the fast-changing industry is working.
The Australian
No comments:
Post a Comment