2018-09-04
Leigh Creek is facing an environmental and public health disaster following an irresponsible State Liberal Government decision to allow dangerous underground coal gasification to go ahead in the north of South Australia.
“Underground coal gasification puts people’s lives at risk, and does immeasurable damage to the environment. The Greens will fight in Canberra to stop the Leigh Creek project and the harmful practice,” Greens environment spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“The State Liberal Government needed only to look at what happened in Queensland, and the flow on effects that are continuing to devastate the communities left behind.
“This practice is now banned in Queensland because of the harm it causes people and the environment. South Australia should be following Queensland’s lead.
“The Traditional Owners and community members who have been opposed to this going ahead have been ignored. Lives are being put at risk for the sake of a company making a profit.
“This is a State Liberal Government who will tell South Australians they oppose fracking in the South East, only to turn around and approve this dangerous project in Leigh Creek.
“The Liberals at State and Federal levels must stop trying to find new ways to chain us to old fossil fuels. We cannot arrest climate change if Governments continue to tie us to dangerous fossil fuels.”