{"id":553099,"date":"2026-03-20T15:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553099\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T15:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:52:09","slug":"like-lighting-a-cigarette-while-trying-to-quit-australia-approves-new-coal-seam-gas-expansion-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553099\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Like lighting a cigarette while trying to quit\u2019: Australia approves new coal seam gas expansion | Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A major coal seam gas expansion, contributing about 120m tonnes of carbon emissions over its lifetime, has been approved by the federal government until 2081.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/epbcpublicportal.environment.gov.au\/all-notices\/project-decision\/?id=406c6c29-6cf8-ee11-a1fe-00224897164a\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">approval<\/a> enables Australia Pacific LNG to continue to build, operate and eventually decommission new gas infrastructure in Queensland\u2019s Surat and Bowen basins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">That could include up to 1,695 new gas wells, 1,545km of gas and water pipelines and three processing facilities, which would produce about 2,033 petajoules of gas. The project is expected to operate until 2061, with an extended approval time to ensure environmental conditions are met.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The project\u2019s public environment report estimated 9m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions would be emitted during construction and operation, and about 111m tonnes as a result of burning the gas \u2013 more than Australia\u2019s annual transport emissions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Amanda McKenzie, the chief executive of the Climate Council, said it was the 36th fossil fuel project approved by the Albanese government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe government says it is committed to cutting climate pollution, but approving new coal and gas projects is like lighting another cigarette while you\u2019re trying to quit smoking. You cannot cut climate pollution if you keep approving more projects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cAfter a summer marked by record heat and destructive flooding, communities are already living with the consequences of climate pollution. Approving new sources of pollution only increases the harm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Australia Pacific LNG is a joint venture of ConocoPhillips, Origin Energy and Sinopec. The development, named the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/gas\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gas<\/a> Supply Security Project, would supply both domestic and export markets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A spokesperson for Australia Pacific LNG said they welcomed the approval under federal environment laws.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe continued development of these gas fields will allow us to continue to produce gas from our existing reserves base to meet existing export contracts and provide essential gas supply to Australia\u2019s east coast now and into the future,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A government spokesperson said the project was approved after the \u201cconsideration of rigorous scientific advice\u201d and would be subject to 126 environmental conditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe project will be required to reduce its emissions every year and reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 under the Albanese Government\u2019s strengthened Safeguard Mechanism,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Lock the Gate\u2019s national coordinator Ellen Roberts said Queensland\u2019s landscape had already been scarred by more than 16,000 coal seam gas wells.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cExport gas companies like Origin Energy in Queensland already produce far more gas than we use. This project isn\u2019t about Australia\u2019s energy security, it\u2019s about boosting and prolonging the profits of multinational gas exporters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major coal seam gas expansion, contributing about 120m tonnes of carbon emissions over its lifetime, has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-553099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}