What the Frack‪?‬

Australia has a new $50 billion industry. It carries unprecedented environmental risks but could be the path to energy salvation: cleaner than coal, safer than nuclear, a complement to renewables. Big oil and gas companies tell us we could be the biggest liquid natural gas exporter in the world, but greenies and farmers are united in their opposition to coal seam gas extraction on some of our most fertile agricultural lands. Will fracking thousands of coal seam gas wells ‘poison our food bowl’? Will coal seam gas really help tackle climate change? Where will they be drilling next? Journalist Paddy Manning unpicks the coal seam gas extraction story, visiting drill sites, boardrooms, pipelines, parliamentary offices and angry farm gate protests. It seems that coal seam gas extraction may be one boom that’s happening too fast.