Qld bans urban drilling as CSG industry risks self-harm

By Terry Ryder, 16th August 2011

The State Government in Queensland says it will ban exploration by resources companies in residential areas, following community outcry against coal seam gas explorers in particular.

It says it will freeze the granting of new exploration permits within 2km of the boundaries of towns for 1,000 or more residents.

The move follows the increasingly-intrusive activities of CSG companies and other mining entities, which run the risk of shooting themselves in the foot with their sometimes insensitive behaviour.

We have one company drilling for CSG in the inner-city suburbs of Sydney and another digging near homes in Bacchus Marsh just outside Melbourne.

There is also growing unrest from rural land-owners over their rights, or lack of them, to prevent exploration companies encroaching on their land and concerns about the environment impacts. The industry has taken on the mentality of the old gold rush days, with companies crawling all over the eastern states to exploit the CSG-to-LNG industry, which is the new boom sector of the mining industry.

This has prompted a Senate inquiry into the impacts of the CSG industry, moves by some local authorities to ban CSG exploration, and attempts by both Greens Leader Bob Brown and Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to curtail CSG activities.

It would be a shame if a lack of sensitivity by resources companies caused government to nobble an industry that has the potential ...

• to be important economically, 
• to generate real estate growth areas like the towns of the Surat Basin in Queensland, and 
• to provide an energy source that is deemed to be cleaner than traditional ones like coal.

ENDS

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