The writing has been on the wall for some time, but now it’s in bold, red and underlined. Labor are climate criminals. The new federal government sealed the deal with their approval last week of Woodside’s disastrous North West Shelf Extension, until 2070, if humanity makes it until then.
During the last election, Peter Dutton promised to approve this highly polluting gas project within 30 days of being elected. Labor said ‘hold my beer’, and gave it the big green light on day 25.
Anthony Albanese put the cherry on the cake by inviting his new cabinet to Western Australia for the decision. Clearly, Woodside’s interests are the most important priority of this government, never mind that with the number of seats they’ve now won they could have taken on the fossil fuel extraction industry and Rupert Murdoch, if they only had the courage or conviction.
Just to put this decision in context, Australia could go 100 per cent renewable overnight, and this single deal would make that irrelevant. Woodside’s North West Shelf gas export terminal is expected to create 4.3 billion tonnes of climate-wrecking emissions over the next 45 years, which is the equivalent of 12 new coal-fired power stations each year – more than ten times Australia’s current annual emissions.
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For some time, Woodside and other gas companies have been salivating at the prospect of exploiting the massive Browse Basin off Broome, one of the planet’s great remaining ‘carbon bombs’. The community victory over the proposed James Price Point gas complex delayed these plans.
Now, with the expansion of the North West Shelf gas plant, the prospect of a pipeline from the vicinity of Scott Reef means they have their foot firmly in the door. As Tim Winton, John Butler and numerous scientists without famous names have pointed out, the extraordinary biodiversity of Scott Reef is threatened by this plan, including endangered whales, turtles and corals.
At the other end of the proposed pipeline, near Woodside Energy’s Karratha Gas Plant, some of the most significant rock art in the world is also threatened, at Murujuga and the Burrup Peninsula.
The 50,000 year old petroglyphs at this site are being damaged by emissions, in a warning of what’s in store for the global climate.
Without providing any evidence, new Environment Minister Murray Watt said recently, ‘I have ensured that adequate protection for the rock art is central to my proposed decision.’
An 800 page scientific report released week said that on the contrary, air pollution from heavy industry is already actively degrading the rock art across all tested sites at Murujuga.
It’s getting hot, Albo
Unlike some Australian Prime Ministers, Albo is not an idiot, and clearly capable of connecting the dots between the flood catastrophe he’s just witnessed in NSW and what’s happening in Western Australia. This is wilful blindness.
Despite the spin of industry, there’s nothing green about ‘natural’ gas. Beyond its climate impacts when burned, methane is 84 times worse for climate heating than carbon dioxide in the short term, and vast quantities of the gas are released during drilling operations, whether on land or at sea.
The North West Shelf is yet another in an apparently endless series of government approvals of fossil fuel expansions which are never considered cumulatively, or globally (in terms of the life cycle impacts of the fossil fuel’s extraction, transport and burning). The money and companies and involved are multinational, but the government approval’s process remains narrowly focused.
Woodside donates to both sides of politics fairly equally, and gets a remarkably profitable return on its investment. After its humble origins in Victoria, it moved to WA and joined forces with Shell and then BHP Oil and Gas to become a behemoth.
The company had an opportunity to switch to a focus on renewables a few years ago, but after heads rolled in management, the survivors deliberately chose to dig deeper into the fossils instead, whatever the consequences.
Woodside’s current CEO, American-born Meg O’Neill, who came to the company via Exxon-Mobil, has been the focus of sustained activism in recent years, responding to furious young people last week by calling them energy hypocrites, for ordering things from online retailers without any recognition of the energy and carbon impacts of their actions.
Meg O’Neill’s own hypocrisy in attacking the youth who will bear the consequences of her company’s actions is on an entirely different plane. Probably the same one as Albo.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
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