These items are from the South Burnett Times Friday 4th Feb...

These items are from the South Burnett Times Friday 4th Feb 2011.

First item - Page 2 - YOUR SAY

Pick the bones out of this letter guys.


HOORAY NO FOR COUGAR

At last, the Queensland Government has heard the communities assertions that the Cougar Energy site should be shut down.

Hooray, sense at long last.

Cougar Energy and its self selected site (on the hill at Coolabunia) overlooking Kingaroy township has been shut down with only authorised activity to clean up the site.

However many questions remain unanswered not the least, can the site be on-sold to another developer such as happened when Cougar sold their previous failure in the Surat Basin to Linc Energy (and please note that they too are on notice to please explain with the ongoing problems there).

Yes, I am delighted that Cougar is to cease its activities with its failed UCG extraction experiment, an experiment that should never have been permitted. But the community needs assurance that this is indeed the end of it.

S. SCOTT
Nanango

ENDS


2nd item from page 4.

There is a large photo of Cougar Energys sign (approx 18cm by 8cm) with a 1cm wide red line through it incorporating the words SHUT DOWN.

BELOW THE PHOTO READS

CAT FIGHT: Cougar Energy may take legal action after the State Government permanently shut down its underground coal gasification plant at Coolabunia last week.

Then the headline:-

COUGAR PUTS UP A FIGHT

Cougar Energy has come out swinging.

On Tuesday the company said it was considering legal action against the State Government for the decision to permanently shut down its Coolabunia underground coal gasification (UCG) plant.

It said "factual inaccuracies" in the independent scientific expert panel's report were being explored but the Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group secretary John Dalton said the company was "desperate".

"They are making out they're the victim." Mr Dalton said.

Their statements seem to ignore their technical incompetence identified by the Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) in the documents supporting the decision."

He said it was a waste of shareholder and taxpayer money on a "venture that no one wants of needs". No type there!

In a statement the company said it had until February 28 to "make representations to DERM to show why such proposed amendements should not be made to the Environment Authority previously granted by DERM to the company."

"If the company is not able to convince DERM through consultation that it should be permitted to recommence operations at Kingaroy, consideration will need to be given to whether there would be any merit in challenging DERM's decision by making application to the Queensland Planning and Environmental Court," the statement said.

ENDS