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APPEA: Report misrepresents CSG industry

World Coal,


A research report from the Australia Institute offers little credible information to the debate surrounding how Australia should grow its economy and put downward pressure on energy costs.

Coal and gas exports

According to the APPEA, the institute has released a “compilation of recycled papers that rely heavily on media reports, internally commissioned surveys, and policy papers consistent with the group’s strategies to halt Australia’s coal and gas export industries.”

The Australia Institute (TAI) is part of a wider movement to stop coal and coal seam gas development in Australia, a movement that includes Greenpeace and Beyond Zero Emissions.

The report ignores the gas industry’s long track record of safely supplying energy to Australia and the world, while developing mutually beneficial relationships with thousands of landholders across the country.

Oil and gas investments

The Australian oil and gas industry is currently investing close to AU$ 200 billion in new projects. Deloitte Access Economics has estimated that over the investment phase, national employment peaked at approximately 103 000 full time jobs across the Australian economy in 2012. It is an investment that will also see the industry’s annual tax contribution rise to almost AU$ 13 billion by 2020.

TAI’s claim that increasing east coast supply will not put downward pressure on gas prices demonstrates a lack of understanding of supply and demand forces. Detailed analysis by the Independent Prices and Regulatory Tribunal and the Australian Government Department of Industry has shown that increasing gas supply in the east coast will place downward pressure on gas prices. Moreover, a recent paper released by AGL shows that increasing gas supply in NSW will place downward pressure on gas prices.

Coal seam gas emissions

APPEA claims that TAI’s assertion that the coal and coal seam gas industry is falsely reporting emissions is incorrect. The oil and gas industry measures and accounts for all its emissions under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 and the Clean Energy Act 2011 and has been part of the CSIRO study currently underway to examine fugitive emissions from the production of natural gas from coal seams.

According to the Department of Environment National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, emissions in 2012 resulting from all oil and natural gas production represented only 2.3% of all greenhouse emissions in Australia (emissions from coal were 3.1%). For natural gas from coal seams, emissions were approximately 0.3%. By comparison, emissions from agriculture accounted for 15.9% of total Australian greenhouse gas emissions.

Regulation?

The industry is regulated by over 150 statues and more than 50 government agencies.

The APPEA statement concludes: “With energy costs rising, now is the time to cut the red tape constricting the gas industry’s capacity to deliver new supplies – not increase it, as the Australia Institute suggests.”

Adapted from press release by Katie Woodward

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/cbm/18032014/appea_discredits_report_on_coal_seam_gas_628/

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