By ERWIN CHLANDA
The head of an oil company with interests in the Territory’s Beetaloo basin has welcomed that “gas supply will be prioritised by the Federal Government to underpin the Post COVID national economic recovery and secure the future of manufacturing jobs in Australia through the provision of reliable and plentiful long term gas supplies”.
Blue Energy’s Managing Director John Phillips says the initiative “will provide reliable, dispatchable, synchronous, firming electricity generation and has the potential to provide a significant portion of the remaining 50% of electricity generation [in Queensland] and provide a just transition for the workers currently employed in the coal-fired generation sector.
“Blue looks forward to working further with State, Federal and Territory governments to assist in bringing the significant gas potential of these large resource areas to market in a timely manner.
“Low priced gas to consumers relies on large scale gas developments, low operating costs, low corporate overheads, and low processing and transportation costs.
“Gas is not only used for low emission electricity generation, but is essential as a feed stock for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, plastics, explosives, bricks, glass, fertiliser, PPE and many more products.
“Gas is also critical for residential heating, cooking and hot water, which many people take for granted (80 % of houses in Victoria have mains gas connected).”
Beetaloo is about half-way between Alice Springs and Darwin. The company has gas assets also in the Bowen and Galilee basins.
This is rubbish. Morrison could bring down gas prices tomorrow by making gas companies reserve more than 3% onshore rather than selling 97% of Australia’s gas overseas for CHEAPER than we buy it in Australia. This is fact. In WA, they have thought about this, have a bigger reserve, and pay half the price for gas as the Eastern states.
It’s that easy. The rest is noise, spin and propaganda. My question is, who’s pulling Morrison’s strings?
This article answers that. Among the Libs, the fossil-fuel industry.
Morrison and his colleagues – and the joker in this article – are deceiving the Australian public without a qualm. And Morrison calls himself a happy clapping Christian. He’s a disgrace and so are his rich mates.
The last thing Australia needs is more fossil-fuel. We are sitting on a renewables gold-mine and all the Federal government is intent on doing is holding back progress and flogging a dying horse. Their actions are not in the national interest and not in the interests of future, or current, Australians.
The massive carbon burden of this project belies the NT emissions reduction target (net zero by 2050) and jeopardises the Australian Government’s considerably weaker vague target (net zero in the second half of this century).
Gas is a dirty old fossil fuel and exploitation of the Beetaloo Basin would be incompatible with our ambitions for a safe climate.