Lock the Gate Alliance has criticised the Queensland Government after it approved Comet Ridge’s Mahalo North gas project, giving the company permission to drill 68 coal seam gas wells, build a compression facility, and construct 60 km of pipeline near Rolleston in QLD’s Central Highlands. (Approval documents are available here and here)
Mahalo North is part of the larger planned Mahalo Gas Hub project - a connected web of proposed sprawling gasfields that previously came under fire amid accusations the Queensland Government had failed to assess the larger project transparently and subject it to full environmental assessments.
The company has also received millions of dollars in government subsidies for its gas project.
Earlier this year the Queensland Government awarded $21 million in grants for coal seam gas companies, including $5 million for Comet Ridge.
Late last year, Comet Ridge signed a sales agreement with Queensland Government owned energy corporation “CleanCo” for gas from the Mahalo Hub. CleanCo’s website promotes “A Clean Energy Future Crafted in Queensland”.
In this year’s budget, the Queensland Government allocated $6.9 million to the Kogan North Gas Fields development, a jointly operated coal seam gas project between multinational petroleum company Shell and CleanCo. (See page 46)
Lock the Gate Alliance National Coordinator Ellen Roberts said, “It’s disappointing to see the Queensland Government propping up the northern expansion of this polluting, destructive industry, especially after all the damage it has caused on the Darling and Western Downs.
“The expansion of the coal seam gas industry across inland Queensland has left a trail of destruction in its wake. Coal seam gas production has drained and contaminated groundwater and is causing the state’s best farmland to sink. The Queensland Government should not subsidise the gas industry with taxpayer dollars.
“The notion that coal seam gas is ‘clean energy’ would be laughable if the climate crisis wasn’t so serious. Fossil gas is driving dangerous climate change, leading to worsening extreme weather events like droughts, fires, and floods, which are harming Queensland communities.”
ENDS