Plans by gas giant ConocoPhillips to use a battery for its Darwin LNG plant ironically illustrate the extent to which renewable energy sources are now cheaper than fossil fuels, according to Protect Country Alliance.
PCA spokesperson Graeme Sawyers said the Australian gas price crisis was now so insane, gas companies were turning to renewables to avoid the problem they themselves had created.
“You couldn’t make this stuff up,” Mr Sawyer said.
“This shows just how uneconomical it will be for gas companies to open up the Beetaloo Basin, destroying underground water, land, and communities in the process.
“Gas exporters like ConocoPhillips and Santos are responsible for raising Australia’s gas price as a result of their export terminals. And now even they are trying to get out of using expensive gas.
“This move by ConocoPhillips is proof of what we have been saying - gas is expensive and it’s polluting.
“Renewables are now cheaper than gas, and switching to gas as an ‘interim fuel’ will simply delay the transition.
“Why are we sacrificing other sustainable economic powerhouses like tourism and agriculture in the NT in favour of this diabolical fly-by-night fracking industry?
“Fracking for gas in remote Australia will produce some of the most expensive gas in the world. The gas price in Asia is around $7.19 Gj, less than the cost of getting it out of the ground in the Beetaloo basin (estimated at $7.50 Gj and the transport cost has to be added).
"How do you build an industry with those numbers? Plus, fracking the Beetaloo in the NT will be the pollution equivalent of building and operating about 50 new coal fired power stations.
“This gas-fueled insanity must not be allowed to progress.
“It’s time to look at renewable energy as a way of turbo charging our clean energy future and our economy.”
