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Federal gas expansion plan risks our economic recovery

CLIMATE AND ENERGY EXPERTS have slammed the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission’s (NCCC) leaked final report, saying that the Commission’s push for gas expansion will derail our economic recovery, push power prices up and lock Australia in to dangerous climate impacts.

The NCCC, a hand-picked body dominated by fossil fuel executives, has recommended using taxpayer’s money to subsidise major gas developments and put gas projects on a fast track. 

Experts say that subsidising gas will be “disastrous” for our economy and climate, and that the Federal Government should focus on creating clean jobs and investing in renewable power for economic recovery.

Greg Bourne, former head of BP Australasia and Climate Councillor

“Given the state of the global oil and gas market, with gas prices in freefall and major companies across the world shelving projects, it’s ludicrous that the Federal Government would consider expanding gas production as a path to economic recovery. 

“Australia relies on the gas export market, we are a price taker not a price setter. The world gas price will eventually settle at $7-8 per petajoule, subsidising gas using taxpayer’s money at $4 per petajoule is living in cloud cuckoo land.”

“The National COVID-19 Coordination Commission’s plan will lock Australians into higher power prices and use public funds to prop up the ailing fossil fuel industry. We can’t recover on gas - the Federal Government needs to get serious about job creation and invest in renewable energy, which could create thousands of jobs right across the country.”

Tim Buckey, director, Institute for Energy, Economics and Financial Analysis
“The National COVID-19 Coordination Commission really should be more appropriately named the National COVID-19 Gas Commission, they really are just a government funded fossil industry lobby group calling for more taxpayer subsidies for the tax haven based fossil gas industry. 

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of listening to and acting on climate science. It highlights the need for a robust policy framework, not the dismantling of an already too weak framework for industry oversight. The role of government is to promote the interests of all stakeholders so we can have a more sustainable economic growth profile to advance the entire community, not a few self-serving snouts-in-the-trough special interest groups. 

The Australian government should be focussed on providing assistance to build new investment and employment opportunities in new low emissions industries of the future, aligning Australia with the global push to deliver on an economic structure that limits global temperature warming to 1.5-2.0 degrees C. 

That should be the centre of the focus of our economic recovery plan, not propping up zero-corporate tax paying foreign fossil fuel industries of the past with yet more subsidies.”

Professor Will Steffen, climate scientist, ANU

“The push to expand gas production in Australia from the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission would contribute to a disastrous future for our children and grandchildren. Gas is a fossil fuel that’s a primary driver of climate change, and Australia’s emissions from gas are escalating. We simply can’t afford any new fossil fuel developments - and that certainly includes gas - if we want to achieve a liveable climate.

"Pouring even more greenhouse gases into the global atmosphere - and the massive expansion of Australia's gas industry would make a major contribution to this - would effectively sign the death warrant for the Great Barrier Reef and significantly increase the odds of even more devastating bushfire seasons.

“The Federal Government must hasten the transition to renewable energy. Australia is the sunniest and one of the windiest countries in the world with the potential to be a renewables powerhouse.”

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Fiona Ivits on 0487 003 872