Chris Minns’ NSW Labor government announced on April 29 it will open up new areas in the far west of the state for gas exploration, after a more than decade-long pause.
The decision comes as the energy crisis, spurred on from the United States and Israel’s illegal war on Iran, deepens and despite the International Energy Agency (IEA) warning against further investment in fossil fuels.
Solaye Snider, from Greenpeace Australia Pacific, criticised the Labor government for “once again bending over backwards to please the gas lobby”. She said it will create rather than solve problems.
“Any new gas coming from the far west would be more expensive than renewable energy and take decades to come online. It would also destroy the environment, cause enormous and irreversible climate damage, and delay the transition to what is irrefutably a cheaper, cleaner source of energy, renewables.”
Snider said the fossil fuel crisis, driven by the war on Iran, makes it clear “we should be rapidly unhooking ourselves from volatile fossil fuels like gas”.
“We don’t have a gas supply problem here in Australia; we have an export problem,” Snider said.
Lock the Gate Alliance (LTGA) said that regional communities are also angry at the government’s decision because it will put communities, water and agriculture at risk.
The government announced it will open up the Bancannia and Pondie Range Troughs for gas exploration applications, while slashing the application fee from $50,000 to $1000.
Liverpool Plains farmer Margaret Fleck said: “This is a disastrous back flip from the NSW government which had, in 2021, listened to community concerns about gas drilling and decided to block exploration in the far west.
“Farmers in NSW’s northwest have been fighting Santos’ Narrabri gas project for over a decade, because we refuse to see prime farmland and water sacrificed for short-term gas extraction.”
Fleck said that the government’s decision to “hand out gas licences like candy” means that gas wells would “permanently scar NSW’s land and water sources for generations”.
A coalition of unions and community organisations called on the government last month to commit to an economy-wide gas reduction plan, to make energy more affordable, protect and create manufacturing jobs and improve community health.
LTGA’s Clean Industry Coordinator Harriet Kater said “new research shows that 74% of gas use in NSW could be replaced with commercially available technology, such as electrification and heat pumps, and that a 52% gas reduction target by 2035 is achievable for the state.”
LTGA said the Net Zero Commission’s advice for the NSW Net Zero Plan for 2035 was that there is a need “to accelerate the electrification of NSW industry and buildings to meet our legislated emissions reduction targets”.
Renew Economy said on April 29 that the government’s decision is based on a scare campaign about supposed “energy shortfalls” in NSW. This is despite the Australian Energy Market Operator making it clear that renewables and battery storage means that there is less need for gas fired generation than previously forecast.
Sydney Knitting Nannas and Friends rallied outside NSW Parliament on May 5 to oppose the new gas push. They called on the Minns government to get on with the transition to renewables and to adopt a plan to reduce demand for gas. “Now is the time to speed up the move away from fossil fuels so we become independent from energy shocks.”