Oz State Fracking Ban Hikes Prices
The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (Appea) has lambasted the Victorian state government’s "absurd pledge" to enshrine its ban on hydraulic fracturing in the state's constitution, calling it November 16 a "new low point in Daniel Andrews’ deliberate campaign to drive up Victorian gas prices". It will also encourage manufacturing business to leave the state, it said.
Appea's CEO, Malcolm Roberts, said: "The Victorian government’s continued pretence that onshore gas development and farming cannot co-exist came as Victorian gas production continues to fall and the state is increasingly reliant on gas supply piped from Queensland."
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Repeated scientific inquiries and reviews have concluded there are no risks associated with onshore gas development and hydraulic fracturing that cannot be managed or eliminated with proper regulation, Appea said. The state banned fracking in March 2017.
Appea cited the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) warning that Victorians were already paying a quarter more for their gas owing to the restrictions imposed by the Labour government. "As the ACCC has pointed out; shipping gas from Queensland to southern customers adds A$2 to A$4 ($1.5-$3) in transport costs. Victoria cannot continue to rely on other states to solve its gas supply issues. The state has significant local onshore resources but would rather import gas from other states or, incredibly, from overseas," it said.
The Australian Energy Market Operator had expressed doubts about the state's power generation sector's ability to handle summer demand spikes, but the premier Daniel Andrews reportedly said that the state was "in a stronger position this year because of the hundreds and hundreds of additional megawatts of wind, as well as big changes that were made to battery storage in the past couple of years. We are better placed than we've been for a very long time when it comes to the challenges of what are increasingly long, hot, dry — and certainly from a Fire point of view — increasingly dangerous summers".