Reuters AUSTRALIA'S booming coal-seam gas industry is turning into the latest punch ball for politicians, putting it increasingly at risk of tougher restrictions. The government's slender grip on power relies on Greens and independents who want to freeze exploration, while the opposition is promising that if it is in office it will tighten up on an industry often accused of threatening the environment. Water and chemicals are injected at huge pressure into coal seams to extract gas, raising concerns of contamination of underground water tables and potentially dangerous leaks above ground. “People are sick and tired of being walked over by big corporations,” said independent MP Bob Katter, who is from Queensland and is leading the charge against the encroachment of coal-seam drilling rigs onto rural land. “This is really hurting in regional Australia, but it is biting in the cities too,” said Katter, whose new political party has already signed up two sitting Queensland state MPs. Opinion polls now suggest Katter's party could win the balance of power in Queensland elections, due by March 2012, on the back of a promise to impose a 12-month ban on exploration. His Australia Party wants exploration to stop for 12 months to allow scientists to examine the impact of gas extraction on water supplies. Part of its Queensland State election platform is expected to include a promise to ban all coal-seam gas operations which drill through water aquifers. “It's tantamount to drilling through the Great Barrier Reef,” he said. A parliamentary inquiry is also due to report in late November, with sources saying it is deeply worried about potential damage to the water basin under the nation's Murray-Darling food bowl, adding pressure on the government to act. Debate over how much to curb coal-seam gas exploration could well become a key issue at the next national elections, due in late 2013. The rush to find new sources of rich coal-seam gas has prompted a major standoff in Australia, with rural community groups and farmers joining heated protests and locking farm gates to prevent gas exploration. Similar protests have erupted in Britain, Canada and the United States as companies use new methods to extract gas. Under Australian law, farmers have the rights to the land, but governments retain ownership of the resources beneath and can issue exploration permits. Farmers are worried gas extraction could pollute or diminish crucial water supplies in prime agricultural areas, hurting the parched country's long-term food supplies and agricultural exports. Gas industry body the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) says coal seam gas poses no risk to agriculture, and landholders have sufficient rights. “I think the landholders have the rights already. I'm not sure what regulation deficiency they are seeing,” said APPEA chief operator officer Rick Wilkinson. State governments have power over resource exploration, although the national government in Canberra can intervene on environmental grounds. The national government has so far been reluctant to intervene, calling instead for uniform rules and criticizing protests where farmers have shut out gas explorers. Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said gas explorers already face a broad range of restrictions, largely to protect water, but urged them to do more to build community support. __
