How many more reports, inquiries and peer reviews into CSG do we need?
The Initial report on the Independent Review of Coal Seam Gas Activities in NSW, by Chief Scientist & Engineer Mary O’Kane leaves me to ask.
How many more of these reports do we need? Where is the value?
The language tries desperately not to tread on anyone's toes, it laments the lack of actual data and the uncertainty of the law. It recommends that government should spend more money on R&D into CSG and acknowledges the “emotive concerns” of the community.
All this stuff we know and have heard before. So without having to invoke clairvoyant powers, I predict the final report will be more of the same. It will trigger an avalanche of political debate resulting in several specialist committees, recommending further desperately needed investigation.
While it is not without merit to have as many facts as possible, it is time to shift the debate away from how can we make CSG work, to what are the alternatives.
I have recently been in Germany, where family and friends are producing more energy with solar panels and heat pumps in their houses than they can consume. Without having to sacrifice any of today’s mod cons they are all feeding back their surplus energy into the power grid all year round. A friend is generating solar power with his house for 8 years now. Their solar system is paid off completely, admittedly with the help of generous kickstarter allowances from the German tax office in the early days. His words were, with today's technology I could produce double the amount of power.
Strangely enough the cost of solar energy is coming down, and new innovations and technologies keep appearing on the market, despite ridiculously low research grants or tax incentives. Would governments around the globe stop their fossil fuel subsidies it most certainly would make even more economic sense.
So how about it Premier. O'Farrell? Thank Mary O'Kane for her work to date, take the rest of the allocated money and implement the required transparent laws and regulations, and stop and revoke any CSG exploration licences until then.
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