DESPITE its arsenal of spin doctors, the coal seam gas (CSG) industry has still failed to win the hearts and minds of punters.
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The grassroots movement against CSG mining, powered in large part by the extraordinary reach of social media, is winning the PR battle hands-down, forcing mining executives to crank up the rhetoric in recent weeks.
That some in the industry have resorted to using attack as a line of defence is testament to how deep public concern runs over CSG.
A senior Santos executive this week fired an unprecedented salvo at objectors, claiming Australia could become a third world country unless CSG was embraced.
As Santos nears the government approval stage for its $2 billion CSG development near Narrabri, James Baulderstone said it was time for the debate over whether the industry should exist to “move on”, saying gas held in coal seams accounted for the vast bulk of gas resources on the east coast and resisting its extraction was futile.
His comments come after Grainger Energy director Vaughan Cullen last month took aim at NSW Farmers’ for running an anti-CSG agenda against the best interests of some of its members.
Such pugnacious public pronouncements would have been confined to the boardroom 12 months ago, but a series of well-publicised spills, and an almost endless cycle of protests, have swung momentum in the debate.
There’s little doubt much of the noise over CSG is coming from environmental groups on the extreme fringe.
But increasingly, it’s people who would never dream of voting green – farmers and townspeople in conservative strongholds – that are forming an unlikely alliance with the tree-hugging brigade.
To its credit, the mining industry has made a number of key concessions, particularly in relation to concerns about accessing farmers’ land without permission.
The most pressing concern in this region, however, remains unresolved.
Until mining companies can convince landholders CSG extraction methods will not compromise aquifers, the industry will remain in purgatory.