A $3.6 billion gas project set to drill up to 850 wells in Narrabri grazing and forest land has been given the green light by the federal government.
In not so shocking news, the Morrison government has controversially given environmental approval for the $3.6 billion Narrabri gas project to go ahead.
On Tuesday, environment minister Sussan Ley said she was satisfied that the biodiversity of the Pilliga Forest would be safeguarded by standards put in place for the project, which was initially proposed by Santos.
The final approval from the government was the last major regulatory obstacle they faced, as Santos met the 134 conditions put forward by the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC), which approved the project in September.
The site would see up to 850 wells drilled at least a kilometre down into the Earth and would extract 200 terajoules of gas a day, which is equivalent to 50% of the NSW demand. Furthermore, 1,000 hectares of land would be affected by the project and environmentalists believe the project will threaten groundwater and further fuel the climate crisis.
Coal seam gas in NSW? We have news for you Scott Morrison. With no guarantees about #water security and the protection of the Great Artesian Basin, Narrabri Gas Project will he fought tooth and nail. YOU ARE ON NOTICE. We will defend against toxic CSG mining and gas pipeline.#CSG pic.twitter.com/uIPoePKZU4
— NWGasPipelineWatch (@NWGasPipeline) January 31, 2020
Unfortunately, Australia’s environment laws do not require Ley to take into consideration the climate change impacts of burning fossil fuels extracted from these projects.
The only thing the government seemed to be concerned about was the creation of more jobs, as deputy premier, John Barilaro, said: “We want to create a thriving energy hub in Narrabri focused on value-added production and manufacturing to power long-term job opportunities across the region.”
“Our people don’t want this gasfield, and we are here to tell the Government, Santos and their investors that we will keep on fighting.” #NarrabriGas https://t.co/SjMLtePojp
— Elaine Johnson (@ElaineEDO) October 8, 2020
Water security is so important!! #water #Australia #ClimateEmergency
— Linda McInally🎀 (@Linda_McInally) January 31, 2020
Greens leader Adam Bandt said in response to the approval “cracking open the Narrabri gas wells, Sussan Ley is opening the floodgates for decades of climate damage, while locking Australia’s industries into a fuel that has passed its use-by date.”
Even the Climate Council have condemned the project with climate scientist Prof Will Steffen saying: “In green lighting the Narrabri gas project, the federal government shows a lack of care for the families, farmers and wildlife who need a safe climate to survive.
“Australians have suffered through a horror year of scorching heatwaves, devastating droughts and unprecedented bushfires. This is the cost of continuing to mine and burn gas and other fossil fuels.”
Susan Ley on #NarrabriGas: 'we're committed to making *sustainable* the jobs clearing unique remnant scrub, pumping Jurassic-era compressed buried sunshine through the only water source in the region to just burn it up.' pic.twitter.com/cQwEf5LMdw
— Declan Kuch (@agentdeclan) September 30, 2020
