Ex-Chief Scientist lashes Qld UCG ban, page-10

Federal election 2016: reliable gas supplies within grasp
ROBIN BATTERHAMTHE AUSTRALIANMAY 26, 2016 12:00AM
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Last week Labor sparked a debate about gas supplies when it unveiled plans to introduce a national interest test for large liquefied natural gas products.
The plan is tantamount to protectionism, and similar policies have failed in the likes of Western Australia.
But Labor’s plan was useful in that it raised an issue politicians are ignoring: the need to shore up Australia’s gas supply, which is vital in driving jobs and economic growth.
Some have been calling for Australia to implement gas reservation to solve our gas supply problem, where governments require a proportion of the gas produced to be made available locally.
The goal is to ensure affordable gas is available in this country, and that all our gas isn’t lost to exports.
But the irony in the gas reservation debate is that there is simply no need for us to reserve gas.
Few Australians may know — and many politicians seemingly don’t want to recognise this — but Australia already has technology to produce gas safely and at a lower price. We don’t need to reserve gas for domestic use and artificially subdue the price.
The technology is called underground coal gasification, the process of safely extracting gas from underground coal seams; this can play an important role in solving our gas supply problem.
Yet the Queensland government just banned UCG despite strong scientific evidence to support it and considerable investment to develop it. Why has it banned an entire industry that offers part of the solution to the urgent problem of gas supply?
The decision is baffling for several reasons.
Australia already has the technology that can be part of the solution. Carbon Energy, one of the companies in the emerging UGC industry, had demonstrated particularly solid environmental results, followed a transparent, scientific methodology and worked clearly within the clearly articulated policy position of the government.
But there are two unforeseen results of the UGC ban: it damages the entire manufacturing industry in Queensland by depriving the sector of a source of gas; and it will send local innovators such as Carbon Energy offshore for other countries to reap the benefits of our local innovation.
Queensland manufacturers will be significantly worse off as rising energy costs hurt profits and their ability to hire more Queenslanders and reinvigorate the state’s economic growth.
The importance of manufacturing to Queensland cannot be overstated. It contributes $20.3 billion to the economy and employs 7.2 per cent of the workforce.
Our manufacturers need to be low-cost producers to compete globally. Emerging technologies such as UCG would have created abundant low-cost gas.
The UCG ban will not only deprive Queensland of part of the solution to the looming energy crisis but it will also lead to a CSIRO-developed technology being commercialised offshore rather than in Australia.
Other countries are demonstrating a much greater capacity for forward-thinking in recognising the importance of technology and innovation. The Chinese government is leading the world, having identified UCG as one of the technologies that can safely and responsibly use the country’s significant coal reserves for energy generation.
It is vital to have debate about new technologies, particularly their impact on the environment. It’s also important to require additional disclosure of risks.
But blanket bans are a serious over-reaction and immensely damaging. It is far too easy and simplistic for governments to take a populist approach and implement a ban rather than opening up a proper, open debate.
In the case of UGC, the Queensland government’s ban has killed an emerging industry that had a solution to one of Australia’s most pressing problems: ensuring a reliable, affordable supply of gas.
Rather than a national interest or gas reservation debate, we need to talk seriously about how knee-jerk government bans are holding back our economy.
Robin Batterham was president of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (2007-12), Australian chief scientist (1999-2005) and Rio Tinto Group chief scientist (1999-2009).