Twenty five years ago, on this day, March 14th, 2001,
The Commonwealth Government has offered Sydney Gas Company N/L research and development grant totalling $4.1 million for a coal gas project that will provide Australia with a major environmentally friendly and clean energy source close to its most populous area, Industry Minister Nick Minchin said today.
The project, funded under the R&D Start Program, will exploit the gas resources trapped in the coal beds in the Sydney Basin. It will result in a supply that could have significant economic benefits for the population base on the Eastern seaboard.
It will also generate export earnings if the technology used can be licensed to other sites around the world where trapped gas has to be extracted at great cost.
The $4.1 million grant offer was made by the Industry Research and Development Board and the Commonwealth Government’s business unit, AusIndustry, which administers the Program.
Senator Minchin said the project, when successful, would see significant amounts of clean coal bed methane gas fed directly into the NSW gas supply system.
“There will undoubtedly be major benefits flowing to the consumers because NSW has the largest potential market and at the moment there is no natural gas production in the State,” Senator Minchin said.
“The 1997 Australian Gas Association demand forecast for the eastern States of Australia shows that natural gas will be Australia’s fastest growing energy source. The coal bed methane project in the Sydney Basin will help Australia meet its domestic demand.
“The cleaner gas would also have an impact on the Kyoto Protocol commitments which seeks world-wide reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.”
Anon. 2001. $4.1m commonwealth grant offer for NSW R&D gas project. M2 Presswire.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 371ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that after pushing (with violence) the existing populations off the land, Australian settlers (or invaders, from another perspective) set about accumulating wealth from various activities – agriculture and then mining. But this all requires extraction technologies and infrastructure, none of which is cheap. Individual companies aren’t gonna have deep enough pockets, or the appetite for risk. That’s where the state (i.e. the taxpayer) comes in…
The specific context was that the mining booms for export had really kicked in from the late 1960s. And the state (taxpayer) had been there every step of the way.
What I think we can learn from this is that all the talk of “free markets” is just public relations and fairy tales for the hard-of-thinking.
What happened next – the infrastructure keeps getting built, regardless of Labor or LNP in charge. And the emissions keep climbing.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
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Also on this day:
March 14, 1988 – Reagan mouths pieties about international scientific cooperation
March 14, 1997 – Australian senator predicts climate issue will be gone in ten years…
March 14, 2007 – Top Australian bureaucrat admits “frankly bad” #climate and water policies
March 14, 2007 – Australian Treasury eyeroll about politicians on #climate, (scoop by Laura Tingle).