Coal Seam Gas Nightmare

"Do we really want Eastern Taranaki to turn into an industrial wasteland?"
asks Climate Justice Taranaki spokesperson Teresa Goodin in response to
Solid Energy's announcement to focus on coal seam gas in Taranaki.

The state owned enterprise (SOE) announced yesterday they are applying to
New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals for a five-year extension of its
permits in eastern Taranaki to allow their coal seam gas project to move
to an appraisal/discovery phase.

"Solid Energy's announcement is particularly ironic, because just a few
weeks ago at a screening of the documentary 'Gasrush' in New Plymouth
about the Australian CSG industry, we had guys from the oil and gas
industry there telling the audience afterwards that the documentary wasn't
relevant in Taranaki because it is mostly about CSG. Well, that
documentary and the situation in Australia has become very relevant now,
and I think it's time for farmers and landowners in the back blocks of
Eastern Taranaki to look into this issue, because you don't have to dig
too far to find how CSG has affected the farmers and the environment in
Aussie. I would expect organisations like Federated Farmers and the
Taranaki Rural Support Trust to investigate this issue and assess the
potential impacts on their members and the future of food production in
our region" said Ms Goodin.

"The Coal Seam Gas (CSG) industry in Australia has severely affected
ground water aquifers. Water levels have dropped significantly in some
areas, putting farming operations at great risk. Huge areas are condemned
for storage of highly saline, toxic waste fluids as a result of this
industry. We now see Australian farmers (graziers, wine growers),
landowners, environmentalists and politicians organising en masse against
the oil and gas industry as part of the 'Lock the Gate' campaign denying
the gas companies access to their land."

PEPANZ CEO David Robinson himself acknowledged the danger, "Coal seam gas
is extracted using a pressure change within the structure created by
extracting water from within the coal seam. Water management is a
challenge for this industry. By comparison, conventional and tight gas
resources are typically found at significantly greater depths." [2]

Goodin emphasized, "Solid Energy is a SOE owned by all New Zealanders. We
find it deeply worrying that a company owned by all of us is engaging in
such life-threatening activities in our region. Solid Energy's
environmental track-record is far from rosy. Solid Energy has severely
polluted the Ngakawau River from their West Coast Stockton Mine, driven
the Mt Augustus native snail into extinction and are threatening rare
abundant kiwi habitat in Happy Valley."

"We will keep on organising resistance against oil, gas, coal and
especially fracking in our communities. Although not all CSG wells require
fracking, many do. This extraction technique is dangerous as it can have
disastrous effects on ground water aquifers, requires toxic wastes to be
disposed and stops us once again from moving towards renewable energy
sources instead of burning fossil fuels" said Ms Goodin.

ENDS

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