Chapter 1 A golden age of gas?; Chapter 2 Gladstone: Spoils of a boom; Chapter 3 Fracking: A risky business; Chapter 4 Is there a drop to drink?; Chapter 5 Worse than coal?; Chapter 6 Backlash: Locking the gate; Chapter 7 Queensland: Surat Basin or the Darling Downs?; Chapter 8 New South Wales: Greenlight for gas; Conclusion: The food task versus the energy task
Summary
Australia has a new $50 billion industry; it carries unprecedented environmental risks, but could be the path to energy salvation: cleaner than coal, safer than nuclear, a complement to renewables. While big oil and gas companies believe Australia could be the biggest liquid natural gas exporter in the world, farmers and environmentalists are united in their opposition to coal seam gas extraction from the nation's most fertile agricultural lands. Will interfering with thousands of coal seam gas wells poison food resources? Will coal seam gas really aid in tackling climate change? Where will there be drilling next? Visiting drill sites, boardrooms, pipelines, parliamentary offices and angry farm gate protests, this book demonstrates how coal seam gas extraction may be one boom that is happening too fast
