Environmental group Friends of the Earth (FoE) has welcomed today’s announcement of the community consultation process on unconventional gas by the Energy and Resources Minister Russell Northe.
“After many months of inaction by the previous minister, we are impressed that Mr Northe has moved quickly since his appointment to get this process out into the public realm” said FoE spokesperson Cam Walker.
Friends of the Earth. April 30, 2014
Community consultation on gas welcomed. First test will be Seaspray drill proposal
Environmental group Friends of the Earth (FoE) has welcomed today’s announcement of the community consultation process on unconventional gas by the Energy and Resources Minister Russell Northe.
“After many months of inaction by the previous minister, we are impressed that Mr Northe has moved quickly since his appointment to get this process out into the public realm” said FoE spokesperson Cam Walker.
“The government has made a number of serious mistakes in how they have handled community debate over unconventional gas. The appointment of Liberal-Party aligned pro-gas lobbyist Peter Reith to head the Gas Market Taskforce stands out as a major misjudgement. We hope that the current process will be sufficiently independent of vested interests that it will be taken seriously by the community. Briefings provided by the Minister suggest that this will be the case.”
“However, we believe that for this consultation to be meaningful, the government needs to extend the current moratorium on fracking to include all test drilling activity. This must include the current application by Lakes Oil to carry out horizontal drilling near Seaspray. Unless a full halt is put on all physical exploration activity while the consultation and research occurs, community tension and anxiety will continue to grow”.
“We urge the minister to knock back the current application from Lakes Oil. Mr Northe needs to make a decision on this application shortly”.
Further comment
Cam walker 0419 338 047