FORMER deputy prime minister John Anderson has weighed into the fractious debate over coal seam gas in rural NSW, insisting the industry has a vital role to play alongside agriculture in helping provide food security.
Mr Anderson, chairman of NSW coal seam gas explorer Eastern Star Gas, which is in the final stages of a $730 million takeover by Santos, rejects the environmentalists' view that the controversial industry has no place in the Gunnedah Basin in the state's north, reports The Australian Financial Review.
"We are not going to feed 9.3 billion people by the middle of this century without a new available and affordable source of hydrocarbons; that is a reality that the Greens run away from," he said in an interview.
"People who think that biofuels or ethanol are going to meet that need don't understand what is happening in that sector. You can't power a tractor with solar power, or make fertiliser out of wind power. You just can't do it."
Mr Anderson's comments come as the coal seam gas industry faces mounting attacks from an improbable alliance between the Greens and Alan Jones, Sydney's top-rating radio broadcaster.
Greens senator Christine Milne yesterday called for a debate about moving away from fossil fuels. "There is no evidence that coal seam gas, which is a fossil fuel, is going to do anything other than add a spike in methane emissions and actually accelerate tipping points," she said.
Mr Jones argued the coal seam gas industry should be ditched to protect food and farm security. Mr Anderson, who said he was passionate about global food security, disagreed. It was not a question of whether coal seam gas extraction could take place alongside farming.
Rather "they have to", while clearly allowing for regions that should be off-limits for development, he said.
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