New South Wales to Push Coal Seam Gas Development

The government of New South Wales will push ahead with the expansion of the state's coal seam gas industry despite increasingly organised opposition from green groups, home owners and farmers.

Resources and Energy Minister Chris Hartcher told The Sunday Telegraph there would be "catastrophic consequences" if NSW did not develop its own supply of secure and cheap gas.

The state is likely to face gas shortage by 2014 and the prices are expected to rise, he said.

Hartcher said for too long green groups with an anti-mining agenda had been allowed to spread misinformation and stir up fear in the community without being properly held to account by the government or industry.

"The real problem is going to be the customers who are dependent on gas. One-third of all the state's energy needs come from gas," he was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The recently released Infrastructure NSW report said exploitation of the state's vast coal seam gas deposits would be "game changing" allowing the state to re-energise its manufacturing industry, the Telegraph said.