23/12/2020

(AU) Woodside Faces Challenge Over Burrup Hub LNG Plans Amid Pollution And Rock Art Fears

 ABC News - David Weber

The challenge centres on approvals to process gas taken from the Browse and Scarborough fields. (Supplied: Woodside Energy)


Key Points
  • A judicial review of the approvals is needed, the Conservation Council says
  • It says a full environmental impact assessment has not been done
  • The WA Government and Woodside have been contacted for comment
Conservationists are seeking to overturn approvals for Woodside's proposed Burrup Hub LNG expansion in WA, warning it could unleash billions of tonnes of carbon pollution and endanger ancient rock art.

The Conservation Council WA is targeting the approvals to process gas from the Scarborough and Browse fields at the Burrup in the WA Supreme Court.

The Council's executive director Piers Verstegen said there had not been a proper public assessment.

"It was a great surprise to find out that approvals had been given for parts of this project without any environmental impact assessment, without assessing the carbon pollution and without assessing the impacts on the Murujuga rock art which is proposed for world heritage listing," he said.

The rock art at the Burrup is estimated to be tens of thousands of years old.

An example of the ancient rock art of the Burrup Peninsula depicting emus and eggs. (ABC North West: Sonia Feng)
Mr Verstegen said Aboriginal heritage values were at stake.

He said it seemed that approvals were enabled by retrospectively changing the description of the role of existing facilities.

The Council has called for a judicial review.

"Under West Australia's environmental laws, it's a requirement that projects which impact on the environment like this are subject to full environmental impact assessment before approvals are given," Mr Verstegen said.

"And we believe that hasn't been undertaken in this case.

"These approvals were issued by the EPA and the State Government without public consultation, without any assessment of the environmental impacts of six billion tonnes of carbon pollution from processing this gas, so we are now proceeding to court to ensure West Australia's environmental laws are upheld."

Woodside will 'vigorously' defend position, says gas better than fossil fuels

Mr Verstegen said the carbon pollution from the project roughly equalled about four times the amount of pollution of the proposed Adani coal mine in Queensland.

He said such projects were "unacceptable" in terms of environmental impacts.

Piers Verstegen (right) with Environmental Defenders Office managing lawyer Tim Macknay, who is helping the legal challenge. (ABC News: Jon Sambell)
"What we know is LNG exported from Australia is not a clean fuel," he said.

Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman said the company has complied with regulatory requirements and environmental processes.
"We intend to vigorously defend our position," he said via a statement.
"The CCWA is resorting to a legal challenge a year and a half after the approvals were granted.

"We strongly support the State Government's and the EPA processes."

Mr Coleman said the legal action would cost taxpayers money, and flew in the face of the EPA's assessment.

He also said the Council's figures were "highly misleading" because using gas instead of fossil fuels reduced carbon emissions.

Woodside said a consultants' report which had been reviewed by CSIRO found that for every tonne of carbon emissions from the proposed Burrup Hub projects over 2026-2040, four tonnes of emissions could be avoided globally.

The WA Environment Minister's office responded with a statement saying the Government was aware of the Conservation Council's application for judicial review.

It said as the matter was before the courts, it was not appropriate to provide further comment.

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