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.

Will the Adani Carmichael Coal mine meet mining industry rehabilitation standards?

The Carmichael coal mine will have a disturbance footprint of 28,000 hectares, permanently altering the landscape, leaving behind extensive waste dumps that are at risk of failing in the long term alongside final voids that are predicted to drain adjoining groundwater permanently.

This research note assesses the proposed rehabilitation strategies for the Adani mine.

Toxic Time-Bomb or Employment Opportunity?

Queensland has 15,300 abandoned mines. 317 of these are classified as giant, very large or large, and many are having serious environmental and human health impacts locally. The number of abandoned mines continues to grow.

This report looks at the issue of abandoned mines in Queensland and recommends ways to deal with this issue.

Mine Rehabilitation and Closure Cost: A Hidden Business Risk

The accuracy of mine closure and rehabilitation liabilities can have a material impact on the valuation of a mining company. Closing the current generation of very large open pit operations across various commodities will certainly be in the order of hundreds of millions and in many cases be in excess of a billion dollars for a single asset.

Read the full report here.

Lock the Gate Alliance has released a report which calculates that NSW taxpayers are losing out on $14M each year because the coal mining industry is allowed to pollute for free.

The report – titled ‘Freeloaders: Air and Water Pollution from Coal Mines in NSW’ - is the first ever to compare the total pollution discharged by coal miners for free with the costs borne by other industries who are forced to pay under the NSW load-based licensing scheme.

A new report by the University of Queensland has found the koala population of the Ipswich region is a significant population for the conservation of this species in Australia.

The report found that the Ipswich region is home to an estimated population of up to 4,368 koalas.

The report was launched with the support of Taz, the koala detection dog who was part of a community koala survey in the area late last year.

Taz is an English springer spaniel, who was specially-trained to detect koala scat that were later analysed by scientists to determine the age, gender, health and genetic diversity of koalas.

Report by the Australian Network of Environmental Defender's Offices (ANEDO), 2012

Nine national reforms to protect communities, food security, health, water, climate and biodiversity from the impacts of unsustainable coal and unconventional gas mining in Australia.

Download the PDF version of this report

The expansion of coal mining in the Hunter Valley and the increase in the number, area and depth of surface mines has changed the landscape as well as the economic and social character of the region.

Given the extent of new mining still proposed for the Valley, the impact of land loss and fragmentation will be exacerbated by the coal industry’s domination of the Hunter water market.

Read the full report here.

Carving up food lands for coal transport in Central Queensland.

In March 2014, Lock the Gate Alliance released a new report that reveals a Queensland Government proposal to declare a State Development Area (GBSDA) across 2 million hectares in Central Queensland, to facilitate coal rail developments, would lead to major flooding and significant loss of food-producing land.

The declaration of a State Development area will mean that the Queensland Coordinator General can compulsorily acquire any farmers land, against their wishes, across 2 million hectares of land. 

Groundwater impacts of coal mining in the Galilee Basin

The Draining the Lifeblood report [PDF 4MB], and updated estimates of cumulative water impacts, raise alarm bells about the potentially devastating impacts on groundwater resources from 9 proposed new 'mega' coal mines in the Galilee Basin, Central Queensland.  This report is the first to attempt an assessment of the likely cumulative impacts of all 9 mine proposals.

The report was released in September 2013 and new estimates of groundwater impacts have since been provided to the regulator.