If gas is a ‘transition fuel’, then where’s the transition?

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The following is the Conservation Council WA’s response to the senate inquiry into gas company taxation, which held a hearing in Perth on Friday.

Western Australia is ground-zero for the gas export industry. If we were a country, WA would be the world’s third-largest exporter of Liquified Natural Gas – a dirty and polluting fossil fuel.

Around 90 per cent of WA’s gas is exported, and most of what remains here is used by the gas industry itself to process, cool and store the gas before it’s sent overseas.

In fact, 80 per cent of WA’s exports do not attract royalties, and yet the industry continues to receive subsidies from both the state and federal governments. Despite companies making billions of dollars from our natural resources, West Australians are wearing the costs.

High energy prices, fossil-fuel driven climate change and climate disasters. West Australians are poorer because of the gas industry.

We’re told that gas is a transition fuel. But if it was, we’d be using it to fund what we are transitioning to. We’d be taxing our exports and investing that money in the industries and technology we need for a future beyond fossil fuels.

Instead, we’re seeing more and more gas exploration, extraction and exporting, with not enough action towards the transition we actually need.

A state........

© WA Today