In brief
- WA Premier Roger Cook's comments about a potential return of fracking have drawn backlash from conservationists.
- Cook said that if a planned gas project by giant Woodside failed to move ahead, it could leave the state short of gas.
Talk of future gas fracking in a pristine wilderness area to bolster energy supply has sparked fresh fury from conservation groups.
Premier Roger Cook said Western Australia could be forced to permit fracking in the Kimberley region if Woodside Energy's $30 billion offshore Browse project was not developed and the state was left short of gas.
Cook told the Australian Financial Review that WA had a large deficit in its future energy needs, and renewable sources would not be able to replace the gas needed to meet demands from households and heavy industry.
His comments triggered an avalanche of criticism from environmental groups, with about 150 protesters rallying at WA parliament on Friday.
"The WA gas industry has manufactured a fake gas shortage by not supplying their own requisite 15 per cent of domestic gas to the WA market," Greenpeace's Geoff Brice told reporters.
"That is simply not good enough, and they use that to then justify opening up massive new gas expansions in places like the Kimberley and Scott Reef."
The Conservation Council said WA was not facing a gas supply problem, but it did have a gas export problem.
Playing off Woodside's Browse project against fracking in the Kimberley as an either-or scenario was disingenuous and misleading, the council said.
"Gas companies are meant to reserve 15 per cent of their gas for the domestic market, but deliver little more than half of that," executive director Matt Roberts said.
He also raised concerns about the impact Cook's remarks could have on the WA environmental watchdog.
"To have this public pressure mounted and political pressure mounted on the (WA Environmental Protection Authority), I find that unacceptable," he said.
Environs Kimberley said Cook's comments were "outrageous".
"To think about drilling 50 oil and gas wells around Scott Reef and if that does not happen to frack the Kimberley, we cannot believe that the premier has said this," executive director Martin Pritchard said.
The Chamber of Minerals and Energy said WA would need significantly more gas in the coming years.
"If WA wants to maintain its standard of living ... and Australia wants to be relevant and safe in a more contested world, then it must develop its natural resources," chief executive Aaron Morey said.
"As we've learned through this period of the current global energy crunch, it is our energy resources that have put us in a position to ensure we attract the fuel and other resources we need to stay secure."
The WA domestic gas reservation scheme was a successful policy despite the differences of opinion about how much should be supplied, he said.
The WA Opposition energy spokesperson Steve Thomas said a more pressing issue was the capacity of the Dampier to Bunbury gas pipeline.
"Fracking Kimberley gas will be of little value if you can't get more of it to Perth where it is needed," he said.
Conservation groups are challenging the federal environment minister's North West Shelf Project extension approval in the Federal Court.
Environmental groups have also lodged a judicial review challenge in the Supreme Court.
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