5/3/2023 0 Comments Photo vault recoverySouth Australia put $10.5 million into a program that aims to accelerate gas exploration and has also budgeted $30 million for a jetty mainly used by gas company Santos. Victoria is spending $8.8 million to re-start an onshore gas industry and develop a ‘gas roadmap’, spending dwarfed by the $100 million going to turn brown coal into hydrogen and export it to Japan. New South Wales is putting $100 million into ‘coal innovation’, but much of the research remains mysteriously unpublished, such as a cost benefit analysis of carbon capture and storage in the state. Western Australia is spending hundreds of millions on fossil fuel-fired power stations, including $93 million on a gas-fired power station in a town of 848 people in partnership with Chevron. Over the longer term, the Northern Territory is the biggest backer of the gas industry, with almost $4 billion committed to an offshore gas project and $1 billion for pipelines. Queensland upgraded its coal and gas power stations, ran a ‘mine dozer replacement program’ and provided other assistance measures worth $744 million last year, only slightly less than the $818 million spent on Fire and Emergency Services. ‘Yet again, Australian governments are going against the tide of global trends and good climate policy,’ said Mr Campbell. Australia is increasing fossil fuel subsides, while the Biden administration is committing to phase them out. ‘A few years ago such subsidies would have been announced quietly, but now they’re central to government policy. ‘This tax break not only funneled $1.5 billion to the coal and gas industries last year, but it made it cheaper for them to export fossil fuel to the rest of the world,’ he said. The major subsidies are Commonwealth tax breaks that mean the largest users of fossil fuels get a refund worth $7.8 billion on a tax that the rest of the community has to pay. ![]() ‘From a climate perspective this is inexcusable and from an economic perspective it is irresponsible. ![]() Byron Echo Print Archive (previous volume).
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