Political donations disclosures out yesterday indicate that Linc donated $25,000 to the Liberal Party of Australia last financial year.
The news comes as another underground coal gasification (UCG) operator, Carbon Energy, has written in statements to the ASX that it is currently seeking approval from the Queensland Government to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for another UCG project in the Chinchilla area, the Blue Gum Project.
The Queensland Government has still not acted to ban UCG despite two trial projects, Linc at Hopeland and Cougar Energy at Kingaroy, having caused widespread contamination and proven that the process of burning coal underground is a dangerous, polluting industry that should never have been allowed in Australia.
Lock the Gate Alliance president, Drew Hutton said the group was calling for an urgent ban on UCG in Queensland and across Australia.
“Successive governments have allowed the toxic experiment which is UCG to continue in Queensland to the detriment of farmland, the environment and people’s health,” Mr Hutton said.
“UCG must be banned and the Liberal Party should not only refuse all future funds offered by any UCG operators, it should return the tainted donations that it received from Linc Energy in 2014/2015.