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Sydney (AFP) Nov 14, 2010 Miners will drill under central Sydney hoping to strike what is believed to be a vast natural gas reserve the government Sunday said could reduce the Australian city's carbon footprint. Steve Whan, primary industries minister for the New South Wales region, confirmed that Macquarie Energy would begin exploratory drilling in the next few months at St Peters, a heavily populated suburb near the city's airport. Whan said the miner was searching for coal seam methane gas to power the city of five million people, which is currently heavily reliant on coal-fired electricity. "It is important to make the point that we are talking here about an energy source that could contribute to lowering the carbon footprint of people in the area," Whan told reporters. The state's Premier Kristina Keneally said the drilling licence was strictly for exploration purposes and any mining operation would have to go through strict approvals processes. "If there was an application for such mining to occur, it would, of course, go through statutory processes which would, of course, involve community consultation," she said. St Peters is just 15 kilometres (10 miles) from the centre of Sydney, Australia's most populous city, and the eco-minded Greens party warned that there were potential safety questions about the methods used to extract gas. "We need to hear from the premier of NSW and the (Sydney) lord mayor how many drill holes are needed to extract gas from under Sydney and where are they going to be placed?" said Greens leader Bob Brown. "There's still huge questions marks about what is being used by these companies and huge questions marks over the ground water and ... climate change impacts," he added. Local Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said the densely-populated community had not been consulted and would be "horrified to learn that their suburb could be the subject of a full-scale gas extraction operation." Australia is the world's worst per capita polluter and largest exporter of coal. It has committed to reducing pollution by five percent from 2000 levels by 2020, in line with worldwide efforts to cut the production of gases blamed for global warming.
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Japan to send troops to remote isle over China fears: mediaTokyo (AFP) Nov 11, 2010 Tokyo will send around 100 soldiers to a remote Japanese island in the East China Sea, a report said Thursday, amid growing anxiety over China's naval activities. The ground troops will be deployed on Yonaguni island, Japan's westernmost point, to carry out coastal patrols and surveillance of Chinese naval vessels, Jiji news agency quoted defence officials as saying. Tokyo eventually pla ... read more |
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