At first glance, it seems pretty plain what the Stop CSG Party is going to be about. Actually, that’s not true, because I had to look up CSG, not having seen the abbreviation before. It turns out that it stands for Coal Seam Gas mining, and that a lot of people think that this is a very bad thing.
Coal Seam Gas Mining turns out to be one of the things that I know absolutely nothing about, so since the odds are that it will turn out to be relevant to this particular political party, I thought I’d better have a quick look online and find out. According to the Internet, coal seam gas is another way of saying coalbed methane, which is apparently a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. If this is still clear as mud to you, you aren’t alone. Apparently, this is one of the flammable gases found in coalmines that can lead to explosions and other exceedingly undesirable effects when one is mining coal. It is, obviously, used as an energy source.
If you ask Asia Pacific LNG, they will tell you that it produces 90% of Queensland’s gas needs and 15% of its electricity generation, and that it is a ‘key transition fuel, helping to lower our carbon emissions’. However, opponents to coal seam gas are concerned at the amount of water required in drilling for the gas, and that CSG mining produces a large amount of waste water which is salty and contain toxic and radioactive elements, which may contaminate the water table. This sounds less good.
The Stop CSG Party, as you might guess, falls into the latter camp. Let’s start by looking at their group voting ticket.
