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EDO celebrates blocking of proposed new coal mine
The Environmental Defenders Office NSW has welcomed a decision to reject the planned greenfield Bylong coal mine due to its potential greenhouse gas emissions.
Jerome Doraisamy
EDO NSW, who represented the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance in proceedings before the Independent Planning Commission, said the decision marked “another significant step” forward in combating climate change in Australia.
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The decision is also the first made by the IPC in relation to a greenfield coal mine since the successful halting of the Rocky Hill coal mine on the basis of climate change impacts.
The mine – proposed by KEPCO Bylong Australia Pty Ltd – was to have a life of 25 years, “including both open-cut and underground longwall mining in a rural area”.
It was recommended for approval by the then NSW Department of Planning and Environment, which – EDO NSW argued – “makes today’s IPC refusal particularly notable.”
In its statement of reasons for the decision, the IPC said: “The project is not in the public interest because it is contrary to the principles of ESD (ecologically sustainable development) – namely intergenerational equity because the predicted economic benefits would accrue to the present generation but the long-term environmental, heritage and agricultural costs will be borne by the future generations.”
EDO NSW CEO David Morris said: “We assisted our client, the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance, to put forward equivalent expert evidence to that relied on by the Land and Environment Court when it refused the Rocky Hill coal mine at Gloucester in February.”
“It is clearer than ever that the Rocky Hill judgment sets a best practice standard when considering new fossil fuel developments. This mine would have been even bigger – in fact much bigger – than Rocky Hill, with concomitantly bigger carbon impacts. In helping stop this development, we acted in the public interest to constrain emissions and climate change impacts,” he said.
Bylong Valley Protection Alliance secretary Warwick Pearse added: “The IPC is to be applauded for recognising the need to consider the climate impacts of new coal projects. The serious threats to water and agriculture in the Bylong Valley have also been recognised by the IPC and they have decided that the long-term, adverse and irreversible effects of coal mining in the Bylong Valley outweigh the short-term gain in local jobs.”
