Origin Energy are lining up to frack the Northern Territory this year, and in the firing line are some magical places, including recharge zones of Mataranka Hot Springs.

Traditional Owners have told us that Origin Energy has ignored their concerns about fracking and not properly laid out the risks involved.

We need to build a powerful movement of people willing to spread the word and take on Origin at every level, from their head offices to their board rooms.

Freedom of Information documents obtained by Lock the Gate Alliance show that the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources said Adani’s North Galilee Water Scheme (NGWS) could have a significant impact on water resources.

A new report released today by the Australian-German Climate and Energy College debunks the myth of a gas shortage in Australia and reveals that renewable energy and storage is cheaper than gas.

This research finds that although a although a “gas-price crisis” exists in eastern-Australia, a gas-supply shortfall is very unlikely to occur. It also finds that the former gas “buyer’s market” that prevailed in eastern-Australia has shifted to become a “seller’s market”. 

Download the full report here.

A leaked Queensland Government report estimates that taxpayers are set to foot a massive bill of $3.2 billion in coal mine rehabilitation costs because the current financial assurance system is not covering the full cost of mine rehabilitation.

The report shows that not only are the financial bonds held by coal companies completely inadequate to rehabilitate sites, but that on-ground progressive rehabilitation is in decline.

Make Coal Giants Pay for Mine Clean-Up

Our new report – Abandoned Mines in Queensland: Toxic Time-bomb or Employment Opportunity? – calls for big mining companies to cover the cost of rehabilitating the State’s abandoned mines and estimates that this would generate 6000 jobs in regional Queensland!

There are too many large abandoned mines, and the full cost of cleaning them up is too large and should not fall on taxpayers. If mines are levied to pay for the clean up, they can also create jobs in the process.

Why should we miss out on hundreds of schools and hospitals because we’re footing the bill for the mess left behind by irresponsible mining companies?

References:

• Dodging clean up costs Six tricks coal mining companies play (pdf)

• Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry Report (pdf)
• ACF Mine Rehab Stories
• Abandoned Mines in Queensland Report
• NSW Coal Pit Legacy
• Mine Rehab Closure Cost Report
• Rhetoric Vs Reality. Rehab performance snapshot

Please chip in to support the legal appeal on the Acland Stage 3 coal mine on the Darling Downs.

Last year, the Land Court found recommended against the mine because the impacts on groundwater would be too severe and the noise and dust impacts too great.  You can read a short summary of the Land Court decision here. Then earlier this year, the Queensland environment department rejected an Environmental Authority for the mine. 

But New Hope Coal appealed the Land Court decision, and the Supreme Court found in their favour, ruling that the Land Court did not have the jurisdiction to reject the mine on groundwater grounds.

That represents a major change in legal interpretation which will also mean groundwater can not be considered by the Land Court in future legal cases against coal mines.  

However, local farmers have now lodged their own appeal to the Supreme Court decision, in a bid to stop this damaging project once and for all.

This legal challenge is the final hurdle. If the farmers succeed, then the project will be finished. Please chip in to help them get it across the line. It's a fight for the Great Artesian Basin and the right to protect groundwater statewide - and we can't afford to lose.

Farmers across the country have come out swinging against plans by the Federal Attorney General, George Brandis, to remove the rights of communities to challenge coal mine approvals in the Federal court.

"The Federal Government has just approved 3 giant open-cut coal pits on some of the best food-producing land in Australia, and now they want to limit who can go to court to challenge it" said Liverpool Plains farmer Andrew Pursehouse.