Climate Action Sydney Eastern Suburbs (CASES)
September 2011 Event:
Sydney Residents Against Coal Seam Gas
7 PM Wednesday, September 28
Barrett House, 6 Barrett Place, Randwick
Please join CASES in welcoming Sydney Residents Against Coal Seam Gas why will present to us the reasons who coal seam gas mining MUST be stopped in NSW, indeed, Australia.
Coal seam gas (CSG) is a gas consisting of around 98% methane and is formed from the degradation of plant matter over millions of years. CSG is trapped by water and ground pressure against the surface of coal in underground coal seams and is also located within pores inside the coal. The spaces between the coal are known as fractures or cleats. Some of the fractures are interconnected and permeable which allows water and gas to move between the fractures. These Sydney Residents Against Coal Seam Mining demand an immediate moratorium on all CSG exploration and extraction until the environmental and health issues can be thoroughly researched, and all true costs have been calculate. CSG is extracted via CSG wells that are drilled into the coal seams to release the gas trapped within the coal.
For economic extraction of CSG, coals seams in Australia are generally between 200m and 1,000m metres deep. The CSG wells are cased with steel and cement. In situations where coal seams are very deep and of low permeability, the use of hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ may be employed to increase permeability. This process involves pumping fluid comprising water, sand and other additives such as BTEX (BTEX is an acronym for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene compounds) at high pressure down the cased CSG well and into the coal seam. This action fractures the coal seam and provides a pathway to facilitate gas flow through the coal.
There are many health and environmental risks associated with CSG extraction that haven’t been taken into account and the Sydney Residents Against Coal Seam Mining seek an indefinite moratorium on all Coal Seam Gas exploration and extraction until these issues can be thoroughly researched, and all true costs have been calculated.
As usual, the evening will always start with a light supper from 7:00 PM, so please BYO a contribution to share. CASES will supply beverages. The presentation will begin around 7:30 PM, finishing by 9 PM. We look forward to seeing you there. ☺
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CASES Monthly Event
4th Wednesday of Every Month
From 7 PM @ Barrett House, 6 Barrett Place, Randwick
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CASES supports:
100% Renewables Campaign, Beyond Zero Emissions, No Gas Mining in Sydney, Lock the Gate Alliance, Say Yes to Pricing CO2 Pollution and Greenpeace’s Dirty Banks Campaign
A Price on CO2 Pollution is NOT a Tax!
Have a look at this great article in today’s Climate Spectator. Here’s the comment I posted:
I’m not an economist. However, I do find Geoff’s analysis compelling. The price on CO2 pollution is NOT a tax. It’s a way of exposing the real social and economic cost of the decades of pollution visited on the planet by uncontrolled CO2 emissions. These ‘externalities’ cost us billions in health and environmental damage. Guess who’s been paying for that? Tax payers!!! Funny about that.
This has been done through government subsidies to fossil fuel based industry ($12 billion in the past year) and health and environment infrastructure and services. Now THAT is a tax!! Did you not know about this?
The Federal Government’s new Clean Energy Future policy will allow Australia to break free from our bondage to fossil fuel and transition to 100% renewable energy as fast, as painlessly and as economically beneficially as possible. It will give us the opportunity to have energy security, no longer to be pushed around by increasing fossil fuel prices and their diminishing availability. We will be world market leaders, the envy of ALL countries on this planet.
BRING IT ON!!!!