Member for Gosford Mr Chris Holstein has confirmed that there is no approval for any company to produce coal seam gas (CSG) anywhere on the Central Coast.
“We have been actively listening to the community and their concerns and as a result, the NSW Liberals and Nationals Government has implemented the most comprehensive regulatory framework around CSG in the entire country, through the NSW Gas Plan,” he said. Mr Holstein said we are now in a different era from the one prior to 2011, when the former Labor Government handed out petroleum exploration licences with no consideration for our water, agricultural land, the environment or communities. Any applications for a license renewal will now be subject to the stringent NSW Government minimum standards. “The NSW Government makes no apologies for this and will continue to apply the letter of the law to each application on an individual basis,” Mr Holstein said. “This government has already introduced 30 regulatory controls for CSG and we’ve added 30 more as part of our Gas Plan, making it the most comprehensive in Australia to protect our vital land and water resources,” said Mr Holstein. The Gas Plan outlines the government’s new Strategic Release Framework that will ensure new exploration licenses are only issued after an assessment of economic, environmental and social factors. Community consultation is a key element of the approvals process and will be conducted up-front. If a proposed area doesn’t meet the criteria it won’t be released. Mr Holstein said the new NSW Gas Plan adopts all of the recommendations of the Chief Scientist and Engineer, Professor Mary O’Kane in her Final Report of the Independent Review of Coal Seam Gas Activities in NSW. “The Gas Plan is the line in the sand for the CSG industry and it will only be companies that have the industry expertise and suffi cient resources that will even be considered as candidates for a license,” Mr Holstein said. “There are no CSG approvals on the Central Coast and I will continue to advocate for the Gas Plan and its regulatory frameworks that will apply to any prospective operators in the region and NSW.”
Media release, 1 Dec 2014
Chris Holstein,
Member for Gosford