"Enemy
of the environment” minister Tony Burke confirms Australia's
commitment to the "burn it all" club.
Australia: Burke
approves huge gas and coal plans
12
February, 2013
A
CLUTCH of big coal and coal seam gas projects, including the
controversial Whitehaven mine near Narrabri in NSW, have been
approved by the federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke.
He
signed conditional approvals for Whitehaven's Maules Creek mine,
planned for the Leard State Forest, Idemitsu's neighbouring Boggabri
coalmine expansion, and a coal seam gas development planned by AGL
for Gloucester in NSW.
Together,
the three resources projects would have a huge carbon footprint of 47
million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year - about 8 per cent of
Australia's total emissions - according to environmental impact
assessments.
Whitehaven,
part-owned by embattled coal baron Nathan Tinkler, was subject to a
damaging hoax when anti-coal campaigner Jonathan Moylan issued a fake
press release claiming ANZ had stopped funding the project, causing a
temporary drop in the miner's share price. His protest is being
investigated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
The
mining projects had all been approved at state level. Mr Burke's
signature was seen as the final obstacle to development.
''Of
all the decisions I have ever made, this is the one where I have the
least idea of whether the projects are going to go ahead,'' he said.
''For all three projects there are substantial issues.''
Some
of the hurdles yet to be overcome are the preservation of a
''biodiversity corridor'' in the Leard Forest to allow koalas and
other vulnerable animals to survive, high quality offsets to
partially compensate for sections of the forest which would be cut
down, and a hydrogeological survey around Gloucester.
Mr
Burke compared Monday's decision to the approval granted by former
environment minister Malcolm Turnbull to the proposed Gunns pulp mill
in Tasmania. That process involved a series of separate ''modules''
that stretched the approvals process out for years, before the
project was finally canned.
Asked
if his coal and coal seam gas decisions then amounted to ''Clayton's
approvals'', Mr Burke said: ''It's a completely fair criticism. I
would have much preferred to do things in the usual way, and give
clear approvals or rejections. Unfortunately the NSW government chose
to leak commercial information, and caused this process.''
Mr
Burke was referring to a confidential letter from him to the NSW
government, obtained by Fairfax Media, flagging his intention to
approve the Whitehaven mine late last year. He said NSW would be
excluded from the further approvals process because the letter was
leaked.
Also
on Monday, the NSW government granted conditional approval for an
expansion of BHP Billiton's Dendrobium coalmine south-west of Sydney.
Five longwall coal panels will be dug beneath Sydney's drinking water
catchment, with some surface damage expected to eight ''upland
swamps'' - rare ecosystems that support a variety of plants, birds
and amphibians.
The
managing director of Whitehaven, Tony Haggarty, welcomed the approval
and said: ''Notwithstanding the stringent environmental conditions
which have been placed on the project and the difficult coal market
at present, this is an excellent project and Whitehaven will be
seeking to bring it into production as soon as possible.''
An
AGL spokeswoman also welcomed the approval and said it would work on
satisfying the 36 conditions on matters of national environmental
significance and protection of groundwater.
''Conservationists
are furious about Minister Burke's decision,'' said the chief
executive of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Pepe Clarke.
''Leard
Forest is a rich natural habitat, teeming with life, and this
decision marks the death knell of this extraordinary area.''
The
NSW Greens said the series of approvals made for ''a very black day
for the environment in NSW''.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.