Australia's Labor Govt Approves Coal Bed Methane Development Licensed To Operate Through Year 2077
he Greens have accused Labor of “making the climate crisis worse” and being more interested in opening new coal and gas mines than working together to improve climate policy after the government approved a new coal seam gas expansion in Queensland. Documents posted on the environment department website show that the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, on Friday approved a project by the oil and gas company Santos to open 116 new coal seam gas wells in Queensland’s Surat Basin.
The approval under national environment law, signed off by an official on Plibersek’s behalf, allows the company to construct and operate the wells at the Towrie gas development to feed a liquefied natural gas export facility at Gladstone. It says the wells can have an operational life of about 30 years and the approval is valid until 2077. The Greens attacked the decision, which comes as the minor party is negotiating with Labor over the design of the safeguard mechanism, a policy the government has promised to transform to cut emissions from Australia’s 215 biggest polluting industrial facilities.
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Link to tweet
Link to tweet
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The independent senator David Pocock who, like the Greens, is negotiating with the government over the safeguard mechanism design and a list of other policies, said scientists and the International Energy Agency had been “absolutely clear” that the world could not could not afford to keep opening new coal and gas facilities if it wanted to keep global heating to 1.5C or 2C above pre-industrial levels.
On the safeguard mechanism, Pocock said he had several concerns, particularly the government’s proposal to allow companies to buy an unlimited number of carbon offsets to meet emissions limits. “I think there is a number of measures to improve the integrity and ensure that we are actually driving down emissions,” he told the ABC.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/21/making-climate-crisis-worse-greens-blast-labor-after-queensland-coal-seam-gas-expansion-approved
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