The Albanese government made headlines this week for its decision to grant permits to gas companies to explore waters off the coast of Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia for offshore gas wells.
Ostensibly these permits are in the best interests of the Australian people, a preventative mechanism as a reaction to warnings of gas shortages on the east coast as early as 2027, warnings that have been issued by both the consumer competition watchdog and the Australian Energy Market Operator. On these facts alone, the urgent need to boost gas production and bolster the country’s gas reserves can be readily accepted.
The lines blur when one acknowledges the fact that Australia is an overwhelming force in the global market for liquified natural gas (LNG). The country sits among the world’s largest producers of LNG, overtaking Qatar in 2022 to become the world’s largest exporter. The question then becomes, how can a country that dominates the global LNG export scene be on track to fall short of its own energy needs?
The irony is stark. There is no gas shortage problem in Australia. There is a gas export problem and a gas reservation problem. If you have a leaky bucket, you don’t increase the water pressure. You patch up the hole.
Resource Minister Madeleine King’s announcement on Tuesday also finalised exploration permits for Chevron, INPEX, Melbana, Woodside Energy, Esso and Beach Energy, and additionally granted 10 permits to explore carbon capture and storage projects (CCS). CCS is a technology designed to capture emissions from fossil fuel projects and industrial activity and store them underground, to prevent emissions from entering the atmosphere. CCS projects would see emissions transported to the site, typically by pipelines, and then injected into the ground.
CCS has been described as “eye-wateringly expensive” and a “license to pollute,” by the Climate Council. The technology could very potentially enable the use of fossil fuels for decades by allowing industry to justify extending the lives of fossil fuel projects, despite the fact that globally, CCS projects have by and large been a failure.
Very few CCS projects have been able to get off the ground. Among those that have, many have faced embarrassing delays and cost blowouts. Take, for example, a CSS project at the Gorgon gas facility, which received $60 million in taxpayer funding and intended to begin operations in 2016, but only opened in 2019. Promising to store four million tonnes of CO2 a year, in 2024 the plant is only storing 1.6 million tonnes. The total price tag for the project was $3.1 billion.
This project is among many that make a mockery of the idea of carbon capture and storage.
And yet, rather than reserving gas for domestic use, the government is prioritising exports and expanding exploration to fill a shortfall that doesn’t have to exist. Rather than an ambitious plan to reduce emissions, the government is giving gas companies an excuse to pollute by giving the green light to faulty projects that haven’t proved their ability to deliver real environmental benefits.
Rather than ambitiously addressing the problem at its core, the government is capitulating to the demands of gas giants and leaving the global climate hanging in the balance.
The Albanese government has endorsed gas as a key pillar of the country’s environmental strategy until 2050 and beyond, in a move that shocked environmental groups, the crossbench and its own backbenchers alike. Demands from the gas industry for increased “clarity and certainty,” have seen Labor introduce legislation to give Minister King the power to oversee approvals processes and regulations for the oil and gas industries.
In the first year of the Albanese government, fossil fuel companies donated money to the tune of $863,190 to the Labor Party, with Santos and the Minerals Council of Australia among the biggest donors. There is no question why the power and influence of the gas industry in our domestic political system is pervasive and increasing every day. This influence is unchecked and prevents meaningful progress on climate action, jeopardising our planet and the lives of future generations.
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