EXACTLY ONE YEAR since Santos’ polluting and expensive Narrabri Gas Project was approved, a new report has found the gas this project would produce isn’t needed.

The report by energy analysts Northmore Gordon, which was commissioned by the Climate Council, reveals that New South Wales could reduce its annual gas demand by the same amount that the Narrabri Gas Project is forecast to produce, as soon as 2030.

“This report effectively renders the Narrabri Gas Project redundant. We already know that this project will drive up greenhouse gas emissions, worsen climate change and do nothing to reduce power prices. Now we also know the project is completely unnecessary when it comes to meeting the state’s energy needs,” said Climate Council Senior Researcher, Tim Baxter. 

“To ensure the New South Wales Government is capable of reaching its newly announced target to halve emissions by 2030 – it needs a plan to reduce gas use across the state. This new report shows them how to do it,” said Baxter.

“This is the first-ever plan that spells out how we can wean Australia’s most populous state off polluting and expensive gas using common-sense measures. This is a pathway to healthier, more affordable, and more efficient gas-free homes and businesses,” he said. 

Report Key Findings: 

• Gas demand within New South Wales could be 70 percent lower as soon as 2030, and ​​eliminated altogether as soon as 2050, using readily available, commercially viable technologies.
• With the right policies in place to support technologies like electric resistance heating and renewable hydrogen, gas use can be reduced in emissions-intensive industries like iron and steel manufacturing. 
• Homes and commercial buildings are responsible for almost half of New South Wales’ gas use and meeting their needs with electricity is readily achievable with existing, commercially available technologies. 
• Putting common-sense measures in place to reduce gas demand in New South Wales, such as electrifying homes and upgrading commercial buildings, would make the expensive and polluting Narrabri Gas Project redundant.
• There is no shortage of gas anywhere in Australia with the growing demands of a swollen gas export industry driving supply issues, higher energy bills, and worsening climate change.
• It is critically important for our economy, health, and climate that every state and territory transitions away from fossil fuels like gas as quickly as possible.

“There is no shortage of gas in Australia, there’s a shortage of common sense in Canberra when it comes to gas export policy and domestic gas reservation policy,” says Member for Barwon, Roy Butler. 

Mr Butler’s comments follow the new energy deal struck by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Welcome to our Business and Infrastructure Funding Opportunities Newsletter

Welcome to our Business and Infrastructure Funding Opportunities Newsletter where you will find details of grant and funding programs that are available for the Northern Inland Region for businesses and infrastructure projects.

Due to the number of grants that are available, we send two funding opportunities newsletters a month; one for Business and Infrastructure and another for Community Projects and Award Programs. These newsletters are a free service that we provide, and can you can add the Community Funding Opportunities and Awards Programs newsletter to your subscriptions by filling your details into on the left hand side of our website: www.rdani.org.au

Businesses have threatened to pull $2 billion of planned investmen­t from NSW as frustrations mount that delays approving Santos’s Narrabri project will cripple the viability of their operations.

Gas giant Santos issued a plea yesterday for the NSW government to outline its approval timeline for its $3bn coal-seam gas project in the Gunnedah Basin just days after the Queensland government agreed on a deadline to make a call on Adani’s long-delaye­d ­Carmichael coalmine.

Santos’s demand has been reinforced­ by industrial gas custom­ers, who have agreed to preliminary deals to buy gas from Narrabri, which could meet half the gas needs of the state.

Boggabri Coal will be able to transport small amounts of coal by road and realign its mine boundaries under approval from the Independent Planning Commission (IPC).

On Monday, the IPC signed off on modifications to five parts of the company's existing project approval for Boggabri Coal Mine including a coal stockpile area, drilling and exploration in the approved disturbance area, and an extension of the time frame for securing biodiversity offsets.

The map that does not make sense (unless you are the owner of the red box ie Santos).

No business case has been released for this greenfield rerouting of the Inland Rail right through the Pilliga forest (no farms in there!) and the CWA have now joined NSW Farmers and Labor in the call for an inquiry.

"The conference voted to request the federal government hold an independent inquiry into the green field routes and funding for the inland rail project."

https://www.bordermail.com.au/story/6117549/what-we-are-lobbying-for-just-makes-sense-cwa-leader-says/