20/08/2017

'Staggering': NSW emissions rule to be tested in court for the first time

Fairfax - Peter Hannam

NSW planning rules that require greenhouse gas emissions be taken into account when approving major projects will be tested in court in a challenge to a coal mine extension near Mudgee.
In April, the Planning Assessment Commission approved a seven-year extension to the Wilpinjong mine.
The nod for the mine, which had an annual coal output of 13 million tonnes, came just one week after the PAC had received 284 objections to the project.
A farming property at the top of the Barigan Valley, near Bylong and Wollar. Most of the valley is owned by Peabody for its Wilpinjong mine. Photo: John Jakes
Environmental Defender's Office NSW will challenge the PAC's decision on behalf of the Wollar Progress Association. It will argue in the Land and Environment Court that the commission failed to consider the project's carbon emissions as required by the mining State Environmental Planning Policy.
Most of the output is earmarked for AGL's Liddell and Bayswater power stations in the Hunter Valley, and so most of the emissions from burning the coal will add to NSW's tally.
Sue Higginson, EDO's principal solicitor, said it would be the first time clause 14 of the mining SEPP – which required the consent authority to assess greenhouse gas emissions in line with state policies – had been tested. The government had set a net-zero emissions goal by 2050.
"Those laws must be followed by decision makers and, in this case, our client alleges they were not," Ms Higginson said.
The EDO was hoping to repeat its win in the Supreme Court earlier this month when judges ruled consent given to the Springvale coal mine extension near Lithgow was invalid.
In that case, the PAC was deemed to have failed to take into account the water SEPP requiring any project in Sydney's catchment had a neutral or positive effect on water quality. The mine had no waste water treatment facility and released contaminated fluid directly into the Coxs River.
Coal railway to the Wilpinjong mine, near Mudgee, north-west of Sydney. Photo: jparsons@fairfaxmedia.com.au
US-based Peabody, which owned the Wilpinjong​ mine, said the PAC's approval process involved "thorough public consultation and a detailed impact assessment".
The project extension would secure about 550 ongoing jobs and create as many as 75 additional ones, a Peabody spokesman said.
Fairfax Media sought comment from AGL and Planning Minister Anthony Roberts.
Bev Smiles, secretary of the Wollar Progress Association, said residents were opposed to the mine's expansion because a new open-cut pit would encroach within 1.5 kilometres of Wollar village.
"We are hoping the court will take note of [the Springvale] decision," Ms Smiles said. "It's the only legal opportunity we have to question the process was done properly in NSW."
NSW Greens environment spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said it was "staggering" the PAC had ignored emissions when the law clearly required it.
"The emissions from the total amount of coal to be mined in this extension application [from 2017 to 2033] is the equivalent to 60 per cent of Australia's total 2016-17 emissions," Mr Buckingham said, or 346.3 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent.

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