Developing shale oil wouldn’t solve Australia’s fuel problems; in fact it would actually make them a lot worse. The production of shale oil is highly greenhouse polluting, up to almost 4 times worse than normal oil. Yet the CSIRO say we need to reduce greenhouse emissions 60-80% by 2050 if we are going to stop devastating coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef & a major increase in the frequency & intensity of droughts. The last attempt to develop shale oil in Australia - the Stuart Project near Gladstone - shut down in 2004 because of endless technical, commercial & environmental problems. It was more than $130 million over budget & never made a profit despite Government subsidies of nearly $55 for every barrel of oil it produced. Air emissions from the plant repeatedly made local people sick, leading the 2 local councils to oppose its planned expansion & Queensland Health to describe it as "a public health nuisance". A full-scale plant would have used nearly 30% of Gladstone's total water demand or almost twice as much as all residential & commercial demand combined. Developing shale oil would lock us into an environmentally damaging & greenhouse polluting future at the very time we need to be investing our efforts into clean renewable fuels.

On Sunday the Queensland Government announced a 20-year moratorium on shale oil mining at Proserpine, where Australia’s largest shale oil deposit is located, & that no new shale oil mines will be permitted in the state. It will research “whether oil shale deposits can be used in an environmentally acceptable way”, which is likely to find it can’t, given the problems that exist with it. Small-scale demonstration plants will only be permitted on the Stuart shale oil deposit near Gladstone, where the failed Stuart Project was located, if the technology passes “strict environmental standards”. See http://statements.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySin gle.aspx?id=59819