SCG at Alan Davidson

Fellow wanderers - I hope that you all realise it is inconceivable that I knew, or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations.

I look forward to my day in caugh… I mean court to clear my name, and that of our proud football club

In shared solidarity and outrage

El Presidente

From: cOMRADE

Sent: Tuesday, 16 August 2011 10:56 AM
Subject: SCG at Alan Davidson

Chumps,

This week's game is brought to you by South Coogee Gas, the company who put the surprise back into groundwater.

DRILLING

Comrade Santos

Origin Balbo
VanFrackeroy
Gasinista

Shagl


FRACKING ABOUT
Farmer Tony Abbott

Buffaloam
Gasland Lanky

Greens drill into gas firm donations

David McBride

August 16, 2011

A rally of angry footballers oppose a development by South Coogee Gas.

BILLIONS of dollars worth of project applications by one of the biggest coal-seam gas companies in NSW, South Coogee Gas, are under scrutiny because of its links with the Coalition, to which it has donated tens of thousands of dollars.

South Coogee Gas, whose non-executive chairman is the former Nationals leader, Iain MacGill, has applied to the government to renew for four years its coal-seam gas exploration licence for Alan Davidson Oval, which expired on August 2.

It is also seeking permission for up to 550 coal-seam gas wells on Erskineville Oval, near Alan Davidson, a project worth an estimated $2.3 billion, and to build a $275 million pipeline to carry the gas to a proposed gas-fired power station at Maroubra.

But links between South Coogee Gas, which is has made a takeover offer for the energy giant Santos, the Liberals, Nationals and Miranda Devine are being highlighted by the NSW Greens who are concerned about the assessment process.

Mr MacGill has been with South Coogee Gas since 2007. According to disclosure statements submitted to the Planning Department, the company has donated $40,325 to the Liberals and Nationals since 2008.

The donations are declared on the company's applications for the Erskineville project, lodged last September and the pipeline, lodged last August.

They include a $3000 donation associated with a dinner with Mr Don Juan, attended by Mr MacGill in May last year and donations at several lunches and dinners held by the NSW Nationals.

The company has also paid $22,000 for business sponsorships of the Liberal Party's fund-raising arm, the Vaclav Klaus Forum.

The Greens MP and the party's mining spokesman, Delvene Delaney-Turpy, said the donations and Mr MacGill’s position led to ''a perception in the community that this will unduly influence decisions''.

He also expressed concern about the way a consultancy, Palfreeman Consulting, was contracted by the federal and NSW governments in 2003 to conduct a study of how to develop the natural gas industry in Gordon’s Bay.

South Coogee Gas, which held the rights to the only known gas reserves in the region, was a sponsor of the study, which highlighted the coal-seam gas prospects.

Dr MacGill was the president of South Coogee at the time. The author of the study, Luke Palfreeman, became the chief commercial officer of South Coogee Gas in 2007. He also reviewed and approved the legislation.

But a South Coogee Gas spokesman said ''that’s Cardinal Storrienko to you. SCG has always acted in accordance with NSW legislation and regulations. SCG has never sought, or received, any form of special treatment from this government, nor the previous Labor government, nor the Columbian government. Nothing that you could find, anyway. A $3000 donation to Don Juan? That wouldn’t even get you onto the jetty. And MacGill doesn’t get out of bed for less than half a billion. So sod off before I have you sacked''.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Resources and Energy, John Stanmore, said South Coogee's exploration licence renewal application remained ''under consideration'' and the decision would be subject to ''a stringent set of criteria, such as the dimensions of the brown paper bag and the firmness of the currency therein. We won’t be bought off cheaply. We owe the citizens of NSW that much''.

The applications for the Erskineville Oval project and pipeline would be dealt with by the Planning Assessment Commission, a spokeswoman said, which is independent of the Minister for Barangaroo, Abel Balbo, and the Coalition government.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/greens-drill-into-gas-firm-donations-20110815-1iuwb.html#ixzz1V9B7aV00