The year of living dangerously

I can remember quite clearly the first time I wrote about coal seam gas in the pages of The Echo. It was November last year and a woman from Keerrong by the name of Judi Emmett came to see me. Arrow Energy had recently put a test well on a property not far from hers which had sparked a group of residents to get together and start informing themselves about the industry and together they formed the Keerrong Gas Squad.

My meeting with Judi coincided with a screening of the documentary Gasland, which Norpa was showing as part of their Summer Popcorn series. Judi was encouraging everyone to get along and see what had happened in America's gas rush.

The film was a game changer. Until then coal seam gas had flown under the radar in Australia and media coverage was all fairly positive; it was a 'transition fuel', a new source of energy with lower emissions than coal.

But since then the public mood has changed and there are very real concerns about the effects of coal seam gas mining on underground water aquifers, the amount of water required in the mining process, the disposal of produced water and salt, the effects on agricultural land etc etc. There are also questions about whether it is in fact a cleaner energy source than coal.

It has become a defining issue of our time and there is a feeling that we are at a crossroads in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Metgasco, Arrow Energy and Red Sky Energy all have exploration licences here and are hoping to move into full-scale commercial production. Across the border in Queensland 40,000 wells have been approved and there are pipelines running to processing plants at Gladstone, from where much of the gas will be exported.

People on the North Coast are asking themselves, 'Do we want that type of industry here?' 'Is it safe?' 'Who profits?' 'How will it affect existing agricultural industries?' and 'How will it affect our image as a clean green food bowl and tourism destination?'

Thousands of local people have participated in protest rallies, written letters, submissions and generally got involved in a campaign to say 'No' to CSG. The issue has brought together some strange bedfellows, with the NSW Farmers Federation, The Greens and Alan Jones all joining the chorus of protest.

To its credit the state government has extended a moratorium on issuing new licences until April next year when the parliamentary inquiry in CSG is due to release its report and recommendations. The federal government has also weighed in (or been dragged in by Tony Windsor) setting up "bio-regional assessments" on the impacts of CSG mining on groundwater.

Locally, Lismore and Kyogle Councils have taken a stand by voting to reject all CSG activity on Council land, despite legal advice saying they didn't have the authority to do so. By taking this principled position, it forces Metgasco into the role of being the aggressor if they want to take the matter to court; a role they are desperately trying to avoid as the court of public opinion is already running against them.

In this week's paper, as well as our fabulous front cover by local graphic artist Christine King, we have Metgasco CEO Peter Henderson writing an opinion piece for On Your High Horse about why he thinks the CSG industry would be good for the North Coast (see page 15). He accepted the invitation knowing full well he was entering into hostile territory, and I thank him for his contribution and hope it generates some good debate in our letters pages.

We also have an article that crunches the numbers on Metgasco's power station, thanks to some groundwork done by Kyogle landowner Richard Deem (see story page 5).

It's people like Richard and Judi, ordinary folk who have been driven into the role of activists, who have brought this issue to life and forced all levels of governments to act. The Echo salutes you.

It will be interesting to see where we are in another year's time...