by Lindsay Hawkins
Over 80 students and local residents packed out a community forum on 16 August to discuss the University of Wollongong’s support for the highly controversial coal seam gas industry.
The “No Gas at UOW” forum was called after students uncovered the extent of the university’s complicity in the rapid expansion of coal seam gas in Australia. Several conferences and workshops on improving the efficiency of CSG extraction techniques have recently been held at Wollongong University,and UniCentre,the entertainment arm of the university,accepts thousands of dollars to display prominent advertising by AGL,the second-largest player in the Australian CSG industry.
Students are also particularly alarmed by UOW’s plans to build a $2.7 million trigeneration gas-fired power plant on campus. Apart from releasing poisonous nitrous dioxide into the air in the middle of a crowded campus of 20,000 students,the plant has sparked concerns because it will run on natural gas,which now includes a portion of coal seam gas.
The forum was addressed by Lisa Miller and Bruce Flint from the university’s Buildings and Grounds department,who spoke in support of the gas plant,and George Takacs,a physics professor,and Jess Moore,from Stop CSG Illawarra,who both argued against its construction. The plant’s supporters argued that it was cheaper than renewable energy,would emit considerably less carbon than coal,and would not consume coal seam gas,while opponents maintained that all gas companies now include CSG in their natural gas,that the huge amounts of methane gas emits make it a worse polluter than coal,and that the university has a responsibility to look beyond narrowly financial considerations. Afterwards the audience directed questions to the four speakers.
The UOW Environment Collective,which organised the forum,has collected over 3,000 signatures calling on the university to purchase 100% of its electricity from renewable providers. On 14 September it has called a “Rally for Renewables at UOW” to build further support for this goal and oppose the construction of a gas-fired power plant.
Further information and updates can be found on the Environment Collective’s Facebook page.
