Editorial: Gas fracking can save NSW and nation from energy crisis

EDITORIAL: NSW has a vast amount of natural gas that could easily be extracted using the same methods proven to be reliable in the US.

American journalist Bret Stephens.

• Editorial: A summer of street dumping

The ABC’s Q&A audience received an unexpected jolt of truth last week when visiting American journalist Bret Stephens pointed out the main reason why the US has lately trimmed its carbon dioxide emissions and massively reduced its reliance on coal.

After other panellists spoke at some length, as usual, about the evils of coal and the need for “certainty” in the energy sector, Stephens mentioned an energy source that can deliver emissions cuts and provide considerably more certainty than Australia presently enjoys.

“To everybody’s surprise,” the New York Times columnist said. “The United States has been able to bring down carbon emissions and bring down the price of energy through a technology nobody anticipated was going to resolve those problems — namely hydraulic fracking.”

Journalist Bret Stephens said the US brought carbon emissions down through hydraulic fracking.

Stephens added that the discovery of huge amounts of natural gas and its addition to the energy mix had largely occurred at the expense of coal.

Gina Rinehart hands back part of gas exploration permit

As it happens, NSW has a vast amount of natural gas that could easily be extracted using the same methods proven to be reliable in the US. Yet NSW currently produces just 5 per cent of its own gas, and the state government has no plans to release more land for coal seam gas mining despite suggesting it would last year. Perhaps Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was watching last week’s Q&A and caught Stephens’s comments, because in the wake of reports that Australia faces looming gas shortages forecast to be three times worse than expected in 2018, he is now calling for NSW to get the drills out.

“We strongly encourage the NSW to approve the development of the Narrabri gas project,” the Prime Minister said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is strongly in favour of the Narrabri gas project. Picture: AAP

“That is critical to the energy security of Australia, the energy security of this state, which I might say imports 95 per cent of the gas it uses. It is untenable for us to be facing gas shortages here on the east coast of Australia.”

Santos, the energy giant behind the proposed Narrabri project, in the state’s northwest, says it has no plans to use hydraulic fracturing at that particular site.

Even so, Santos claims it could still provide up to 50 per cent of the state’s gas needs, with the project waiting for approval from the Planning Department.

Yet beyond the bureaucracy-plagued Narrabri Project surely lie future opportunities to reduce power costs, increase reliability of power delivery and cut emission, all by opening areas with abundant gas to fracking.

The NSW government has allowed itself in recent years to be intimidated by anti-fracking protesters. Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her Energy Minister Don Harwin need to stand up these anti-science, anti-evidence groups and start securing our state’s — and Australia’s — energy future.

NRL FANS BRING IN THE BUCKS

Build a wall! And make them pay! Well, let’s hold that thought. The 40,000-strong interstate invasion for Sunday’s NRL grand final will actually contribute a great deal to the NSW economy — maybe almost enough to erase the pain of another grand final with no participating NSW teams.

Storm and Cowboys fans arriving from their home states will generate about $40 million for the NSW economy. As Sports Minister Stuart Ayres points out: “There is no better dollar spent by a Southerner or a Cane Toad than a dollar spent in NSW.”

YES VOTE LOSES MOMENTUM

The Yes campaign for same-sex marriage has lately lost momentum, falling several points in the latest Newspoll.

This decline follows incidents of violence and disruption during past weeks, plus a widely-criticised “spamming” of private mobile phones with messages encouraging a Yes vote.

It is fair to say that the Yes campaign, which began the voting period with considerable public good will and wishes for success, has strayed from its course. But former Labor Party national director, Tim Gartrell, who is running the Yes campaign insists all is well.

Tim Gartrell is the Campaign Director of the Marriage Equality Campaign. Picture: David Swift.

“We’re staying on strategy and I can tell you it’s working,” Gartrell, who is credited with masterminding Kevin Rudd’s 2007 election win, claimed. “I know when things are working and I know when they’re not — and this is working.”

Either way, let’s hope things all work out better than they did with Rudd.