About 100 people attended a Coal Seam Gas Question and Answer Forum at Johns River on Saturday December, 10. By the end of the Forum, the Coal Seam Gas industry received an overwhelming vote of no confidence from the audience.
Apparently, the aim of the forum was to close the gap between “the lack of factual information circulating around the communities and the claims being made by the anti-coal seam gas groups”.
But right from the start, the forum felt more like a platform for the Coal Seam Gas Industry and not a fair and balanced presentation of facts. Consequently, the audience became emotional and vocalised their disappointment.
Despite the eight panellists, the forum relied largely on the views of two people: one politician and one scientist. Leslie Williams, the National Party member, said that coal seam gas mining would go ahead regardless of community protests and regardless of any new safety findings.
This did not go down well.
The only scientist on the panel, Dr Gary Ellem, said that although the Coal Seam Gas Industry faced some unsolved problems, such as how to dispose of the massive amounts of salt and waste products, he said that it was the cleanest option we had. He claimed that renewable energy was insufficient to meet Australia’s baseload energy needs.
Port Macquarie Independent
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