Lock The Gate Alliance plans to push back against proposed Western Downs pipeline

An environmental group fighting against gas drilling in the Western Downs has urged the federal government to reject plans to build a gas pipeline and $300m gas fired power plant near Brigalow.

Queensland Gas Company. Gas pipeline being laid that will to join the Roma Gas pipleine from the 'Windibri' site (40km south of Chinchilla).

An environmental group claims a proposed high pressure gas pipeline that would connect to a future gas fired power plant on the Western Downs would threaten koala habitat in the region.

The APA constructed twin 23.5km pipelines would join the existing Roma to Brisbane pipeline and connect to the state government-proposed $300m CS Energy Brigalow Peaking Power Plant.

However Lock the Gate Alliance has called on the federal government to reject the plans.

In a press release Lock the Gate Alliance QLD spokesman Dr Claire Gronow said the pipeline would cover 55ha and impact threatened species.

“Among other issues, both projects are likely to threaten habitat home to endangered koalas. That fact alone means the full impacts of both the pipeline and Brigalow Power Station need to be understood holistically,” she said.

“Coal seam gas developments have sliced and diced forests and farmland on the Western Downs, the region is now pincushioned with wells, pipelines, and access roads yet still gas companies and governments want to destroy more.

“Gas is not a transition fuel, it is a fossil fuel that is driving dangerous global warming. Recent studies show that in some cases it can be at least, if not more than, as polluting as coal.

“Governments should be doubling down on clean energy alternatives, not backing more polluting fossil gas that is adding fuel to the climate crisis and creating more extreme weather events.”

The Dalby gas compressor station for the Roma to Brisbane gas pipeline Photo: Hamish Broome / The Northern Star

Dr Gronow said plans for the plant remained unknown after it was withdrawn from federal assessment in July and as the pipeline and power station relied on one another, they needed to be assessed as one.

“Assessing this project on a piece by piece basis will not give decision makers a full understanding of its impacts on matters of national environmental significance, which is the intent of the EPBC Act,” she said.

“It’s a disgrace that more than $300m of taxpayer funds have been allocated to a fossil gas plant that has not even been properly assessed yet.

“The government's claims that it may somehow run on hydrogen are little more than a pipedream.”

The final decision is expected to be made by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek before January 13.

Originally published as Lock The Gate Alliance plans to push back against proposed Western Downs pipeline