A strategic, integrated, and transparently-governed strategic and regional environmental baseline assessment (SREBA) is a central plank of the Fracking Inquiry’s proposal to remedy the public’s concerns about the onshore gas industry, and to understand and mitigate its impacts. The SREBA directly underpins 30 of the 135 recommendations made by the Pepper Inquiry to reduce the risks associated with the industry to an acceptable level, for the industry to gain a social licence to operate, and the Northern Territory Government to obtain a social licence to regulate.
As an overarching comment, ECNT is concerned that the cost recovery model proposed in the Consultation Paper is not consistent with the recommendations of the Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracturing in the Northern Territory (Fracking Inquiry), nor the Government’s commitment to implement all 135 recommendations of the Fracking Inquiry before shale gas exploration and production can proceed.