“It is not a new concept to pipe gas from the North West Shelf across into the Australian grid, but it is one of the options for Australia’s energy future,” Campbell said, according to an AAP report.

The minister said the combination of global warming and rising energy demands meant Australia needed to generate more energy, while also reducing carbon emissions.

Switching to gas was one way to reduce carbon emissions, and the Federal Government had committed to seeing a massive increase in gas as part of the country’s energy supplies, according to Campbell.

Evidently, Campbell has not discussed this issue with Federal Industry and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane who said in March that the eastern states had more than enough gas.

Macfarlane said at that time that the Australian Government would be working with the petroleum industry to encourage greater uptake of gas, aiming to ensure that natural gas was used for up to 70% of all new energy capacity and to double the use of gas as a feedstock for resources processing.

These goals could be met without transporting WA gas to the east coast, according to Macfarlane.

“With the PNG pipeline and coal seam methane, the eastern states won’t need West Australian gas,” he said.

“The best commercial development for gas in WA is LNG.”

Liquefied natural gas is worth a lot more to WA than pipeline gas. Australian gas prices are low, while LNG prices are linked to oil prices. LNG earns more and creates more jobs.

North West Shelf operator Woodside has a 50% share in gas sold domestically in WA, but it makes much more money from its LNG sold on the world market. The last thing Woodside or any other energy major wants to do is divert gas from the big Carnarvon and Browse Basin fields to the domestic market.

The trans-Australia gas pipleine idea was first pushed by Whitlam Government minister RFX ('Rex') Connor. WA Premier Alan Carpenter dusted it off in February to an underwhelming response.