Battlelines drawn over Great Artesian Basin fears

A coalition of councils, farmers and conservationists is increasing pressure on Premier Steven Miles to reject Glencore's carbon capture and storage project in the Surat Basin. With a decision due this month on an application to allow the Carbon Transport and Storage Corporation (CTSCo) project in the Great Artesian Basin, a group including Queensland councils, the Queensland Farmers’ Federation and the Queensland Conservation Council has issued a statement stressing that they remain united in their opposition to the project. “We were heartened to hear the Premier’s comments earlier this month when he spoke of his reservations on the project,” Local Government Association of Queensland chief executive officer Alison Smith said. “Now we need him to turn those words into action, reject this application and then protect the GAB against similar applications into the future.” Related: Glencore hits back at Miles’ carbon capture comments At the same time, Low Emission Technology Australia (LETA) has publicly supported CTSCo with a submission to a Federal Senate Inquiry. “The success of Glencore’s CTSCo project is crucial to ensuring that Australia can achieve large-scale onshore CO2 storage and that heavy industry does have a path to net zero in the short-medium term,” the submission states. The CTSCo project is seeking approval to test inject 330,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide waste from the Millmerran Power Station at depths of 2.3km over three years. Glencore argues CCS is a safe and proven technology that can make a meaningful contribution to meeting emission reduction targets. LETA said its submission sat among supportive submissions from credible organisations and individuals in the scientific community, including the Federal Government’s own Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water (DCCEEW), the Global CCS Institute and Professor David Close, Director of the Gas & Energy Transition Research Centre at the University of Queensland. LETA chief executive officer Mark McCallum said it was very important for LETA to make a submission to the inquiry and support the CTSCo project – both for the benefits it would bring and for the future of this technology in Australia. “It is crucial that the CTSCo project is allowed to move forward," he said. "The deployment of CCS is an essential component of Australia’s net zero equation. Getting to net zero without CCS will cost more, take longer and may even be impossible. “In reviewing the submissions to this Inquiry, I was not surprised to see support for this project from members of the scientific community. In addition to the organisations that have made submissions, the project has been independently reviewed by Australian and global experts, including the Australian Government Independent Expert Scientiﬁc Committee (IESC), the Queensland Ofﬁce of Groundwater Impact Assessment (OGIA) and CSIRO who concluded that any impacts would be local and minor. “The project has also been subject to extensive and rigorous environmental assessment, through a detailed and public Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process. “Despite the opportunity that this project provides, it remains under threat from dangerous misinformation and inflammatory claims that have not been backed up by science. “Claims have been made about safety concerns and the project’s potential to damage the agricultural sector. These claims have been designed to scare, they are not rooted in fact and I am yet to see one page, one sentence, of independent scientific evidence that supports them." The Queensland Farmers’ Federation is pushing for the Queensland Government to put in place regulations to protect the Queensland component of the GAB from future CCS bids. “In the absence of federal policy, the Queensland Government can and must take a leadership role to respond to the people of Queensland and ensure the GAB is protected for generations to come,” QFF chief executive officer Jo Sheppard said. “The GAB is a critical, precious resource not just for the farmers and regional communities that rely on it, but for the country. “It must be protected for future generations. Now is the time for the Premier to step up and make it happen.” Gladstone Regional Council Mayor Matt Burnett said risking the Great Artesian Basin was not the way to reduce emissions. “From a Gladstone point of view, we are leading the way when it comes to renewable energy and energy transition but what we don’t want to see is the Great Artesian Basin ruined on the way through to chasing net zero by 2050,” Mayor Burnett said. “It’s a target that we know we all need to achieve but what we don’t want to see is one of Australia’s greatest assets destroyed in the meantime.”

Battlelines drawn over Great Artesian Basin fears

Industry Queensland

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