Showing posts with label mining industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mining industry. Show all posts

Tuesday 27 September 2022

Grafton Loop of the Knitting Nannas speaking plainly to the Minister for Climate Change & Energy and Labor MP for Prospect (NSW), Chris Bowen

 








Hon Chris Bowen

Minister for Climate Change and Energy

Parliament House

CANBERRA ACT


Email:

EnergyMinisters@industry.gov.au

Chris.Bowen.MP@aph.gov.au


Dear Minister Bowen


Federal Government Climate Policy


The Grafton Loop of the Knitting Nannas Against Gas and Greed is a community group which was formed in 2012 in response to plans by the NSW Government to foist a gas mining industry on our NSW Northern Rivers region. As you may be aware, the determined campaigning of grass roots community groups, including various regional loops of Knitting Nannas, forced the abandonment of these plans. Because of our ongoing concerns about climate change and the impact it will have on future generations, the Nannas have remained active since the removal of the immediate gas threat to our region.


The Nannas are delighted that our new Federal Government has responded to community concerns about the existential threat of climate change by committing to greater emission cuts than the former government.


While this is a good first step, we are concerned that what you are doing is far short of what is actually required. As we understand it, your proposed cuts are in line with a temperature rise of 2°C not the 1.5° which is in line with the Paris goal. Scientists keep advising that much more is needed – much faster. Indeed the bushfires and floods in Australia as well as the climate-induced disasters elsewhere are making this very plain.


In addition the Nannas are extremely concerned that your Government has adopted a “business as usual” approach to the fossil fuel industry – an approach that is completely inconsistent with your apparent commitment to do better on climate change.


We are concerned that you see no problem with the opening of new coal and gas mines.


We are concerned that your colleague, Minister King, recently announced 46,758 sq km of new petroleum acreage for exploration in Commonwealth waters to the north of the country.


We are appalled that Minister King also indicated your Government’s support of the pie-in-the-sky technology of carbon capture and storage (CCS) so beloved of the fossil fuel industry by approving two permits for off-shore greenhouse gas storage areas north of WA and the NT. And there are a further three to come. We are also very concerned that taxpayer funds continue to be wasted on subsidies to CCS which are another form of “green-washing” by polluters intent on pursuing their damaging businesses.


If the fossil fuel industry had been concerned about the election of a government committed to greater climate action, they must be collectively rubbing their hands in glee, because nothing has really changed from the policies of the previous government.


As you are undoubtedly aware, more Australians than ever before are concerned about climate change and they expect more consistent and effective action from their government.


We urge you, Minister Bowen, to improve your government’s action on climate change.


Yours sincerely


Leonie Blain

On behalf of the Grafton Nannas


Cc Hon Tanya Plibersek, Minister for Environment and Water


Wednesday 6 April 2022

MAPS: the shocking reality of the reach of the mining industry in Australia


Click images to enlarge

This is Australia.



This is where Australia's operating coal mines are situated.













This is where Australia's coal, oil and gas tenements, production wells and pipelines are across the country.















Quite a bit of desert and marginal land remaining, but not much fertile land left across the continent that isn't subject to the corporate whims of the mining industry

Something to think about over the next six weeks until polling day.

Source:

http://data.erinsights.com/maps/fossilfuels-au.html


Sunday 27 February 2022

In an election year all incumbent governments tend to paint rosy pictures of their tenures to date. Here are a few matters to consider whenever Prime Minister Morrison or any of his Cabinet Ministers talk up their own record

 


On 21 February North Coast Voices took a brief look at some aspects of daily life that get an airing in an election year - jobs, unemployment, underemployment, cost of living and level of consumer confidence - those basic building blocks by which we often understand how the economy is treating ordinary Australians.

Today the focus is on how governments and industries are treating the environments in which we live. This brief outline primarily looks at the eastern half of the country and only covers gasfields & pipelines, land clearing and the looming extinction crisis.


The Guardian, 23 February 2022:

Australia is spending billions to build thousands of kilometres of new gas pipelines that may end up worthless stranded assets as the world moves to deal with climate change. 

The warning comes in a new report by Global Energy Monitor tracking 600km of pipelines currently under construction and 12,200km of proposed new infrastructure across Australia, with the total value of this work amounting to $25.8bn (USD$18.6bn). 

According to the report, these projects include “substantial capacity expansions planned along the existing national network”, which “highlights the Australian government’s unbridled enthusiasm” for the gas industry despite the risk of creating stranded assets. 

Should they all go ahead, these pipelines would lock in decades of new production in several basins on the east coast including Beetaloo and Narrabri, and the Scarborough gas field in the north-west, by connecting them to export terminals. 















The location of existing and potential future supply and infrastructure options across Australia in the 2021 National Gas Plan. Photograph: Commonwealth of Australia 

While the projects tracked in the report are consistent with what appears in the 2021 National Gas Plan, it also includes the west-east pipeline proposed by former Dow Chemical Global chairman Andrew Liveris. Liveris, the deputy chair of oil and gas engineering consultancy Worley and director of the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, revived the idea of a $6bn trans-continental pipeline in 2020 as an architect of the Australian government’s gas-fired recovery in response to the global pandemic

The proposal – first suggested in the mid-1970s – has long been considered unviable for a range of reasons and the most recent iteration has faced opposition even from within the fossil fuel sector.....

The burning of fossil fuels such as gas is a key driver of global heating. Last year the International Energy Agency said limiting global heating to 1.5C, a goal set out in the Paris agreement, meant exploration and exploitation of new fossil fuel basins had to stop in 2021. 

Dan Gocher, Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility’s director of climate and the environment, said the scale of construction in Australia showed the “toxic level of influence” fossil fuel companies had on government. 

“We don’t need the gas,” Gocher said. “Gas demand on the east coast is forecast to flatline or decline.

Read the full article here


NOTE:

The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 September 2020:

....Santos' proposed $3.6 billion Narrabri gasfield...

...evidence that a neighbouring coal mine will cause a larger drop in groundwater levels....

Leaks of highly saline groundwater produced from test wells caused localised pollution, killing parts of the Pilliga state forest. 

The long-standing concerns include the gasfield sits within a major recharge zone for the Great Artesian Basin, its greenhouse gas emissions include potent methane, and the as-yet unresolved disposal of salt brought to the surface by the 850 proposed wells. 

 Stuart Khan, a water expert at the University of NSW, noted in his submission that at the low end of estimates the gasfield will produce 430,000 tonnes of salt over its 25-year life – or as much as 850,000 at the high end. 

The Guardian, 2 August 2021: 

Traditional owners opposed to fracking in the Beetaloo Basin have condemned the Morrison government for handing tens of millions of dollars to gas companies while Indigenous communities lack basic housing and health infrastructure. 

 A Senate inquiry on Monday heard from a series of traditional owners in the Northern Territory about plans to open up the Beetaloo Basin to gas exploration and fracking. 

The plan is part of the so-called “gas-led recovery” for stimulating economic growth following the pandemic and the federal government has already handed $21m in grants to Empire Energy, a firm with some links to the Liberal party, for exploratory drilling.  

Two other companies with exploration permits, Falcon Oil and Gas and Sweetpea Petroleum, share links with tax secrecy jurisdictions, a previous hearing of the Senate inquiry has heard. 

Traditional owners from Borroloola and Minyerri told the inquiry they feared fracking would poison their water and destroy the land. 

The traditional owners criticised a poor consultation and consent process, saying they had been given no information about the plans or told of any risks posed to the land by the fracking process.


GetUp!, 20 February 2022:

Just hours ago, the Morrison Government confirmed it was "getting on with the job of gas exploration" by granting almost $20 million to Empire Energy to frack to the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin. 

It comes just days after the NT was confirmed as a key election battleground, with Morrison parachuting in to kick off his unofficial election campaign on the ground. 

But while Morrison invited media to watch him sink beers in a top end pub, his policies — including fracking and racist housing cuts — show Morrison only thinks of the NT and its First Nations communities as a political football ripe for exploitation.


The Guardian, 17 February 2022:

The New South Wales government has admitted that land clearing has increased threefold over the past decade, woodlands and grasslands are deteriorating, and 62% of vegetation in the state is now under pressure from too much fire. 

The NSW State of the Environment 2021 report, released every three years, paints a grim picture for land and freshwater ecosystems, which are under increasing threat from habitat destruction, invasive species and the climate crisis. 

The report provides an overview of the environmental issues facing the state including for biodiversity, waterways and the climate. 

The number of species in NSW threatened with extinction has grown by 18 (to 1,043) since the previous report in 2018 and 64% of mammals are now considered to have suffered long-term reductions in their habitat range. 

Clearing of woody vegetation increased to an annual average of 35,000 hectares between 2017 and 2019, up from 13,000 hectares between 2009 and 2015. The rate of clearing for non-woody vegetation such as shrubs and grasses was even higher. 

Bird populations are declining, so too are freshwater fish populations, which were singled out as being in “very poor condition” across the state. 

More than 70% of endangered plants, animals and habitats in the state are threatened by invasive species, with pest animals and weeds costing the state’s economy $170m and $1.8bn respectively each year. 

The report, released on Wednesday by the NSW Environment Protection Authority, notes that although 62% of land-based species in the state are not considered to be threatened, the number of endangered species is expected to continue to grow. 

Although habitat restoration and revegetation programs are in place, these are “not restoring native vegetation at the rate of permanent clearing”, the report states. 

“Management and conservation efforts will not be enough to save many species without addressing key threats such as habitat removal and climate change.” 

The report highlights the devastating effects of the 2019-20 bushfires disaster, which affected 62% of the state’s vegetation communities, which are now under pressure from too much burning. 

It finds that although native vegetation covers 69% of NSW, the ecological carrying capacity of this vegetation is estimated to be just 31% of natural levels in the aftermath of fires..... 

The full article can be read here.


On 29 January 2022 Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison in an election-focussed media release announced: "The Morrison Government will invest a record $50 million to boost the long-term protection and recovery efforts for Australia’s koalas". [my yellow highlighting]

Not one of the five aims this 'investment' involved stopping the barely regulated clearing of koala habitat including the felling of vital shelter & feed trees by the forestry industry, urban fringe developers and broad scale farming.

This was the response from the North East Forest Alliance

Scott Morrison announcement of $50 million for Koalas is a smokescreen to cover-up his Government’s approval for increased logging and clearing of Koala habitat, while allowing climate heating to run amok, threatening the future of both Koalas and the Great Barrier Reef, according to the North East Forest Alliance. 

“Without good policies on habitat protection and climate change no amount of money will save Koalas, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh. 

“If Scott Morrison was fair dinkum about protecting Koala habitat the first thing he would do is to stop their feed and roost trees being logged and cleared. Money is no good for Koalas if they have nowhere to live. 

“The second is to take urgent and meaningful action on climate heating, as Koalas and their feed trees have already been decimated by intensifying droughts and heatwaves in western NSW, and bushfires in coastal areas. 

“If the Morrison Government doesn’t take urgent action on climate heating then neither Koalas nor the Great Barrier Reef will have a future. 

“When the Morrison Government issued an indefinite extension to the north-east NSW Regional Forest Agreement in 2018 they agreed to remove the need for Forestry Corporation to thoroughly search for Koalas ahead of logging and protect all identified Koala High Use Areas from logging. 

“They also agreed to overriding the NSW Governments own expert’s panel recommendations, supported by the EPA, to retain 25 Koala feed trees per hectare in modelled high quality habitat, by reducing retention down to just 10 smaller trees. 

“Thanks to the Morrison Government we now have a shoddy process where a few small trees are protected in inaccurately modelled habitat, while loggers rampage through Koala’s homes, and if a Koala is seen in a tree then all they need to do is wait until it leaves before cutting its tree down. 

“Now Scott Morrison is allowing the Forestry Corporation to log identified refuges in burnt forests where Koalas survived the fires

“The situation on private lands is just as dire. Morrison did nothing to save Koala habitat when his State National Party colleagues declared war on Koalas in mid 2020 and forced his Liberal colleagues to agree to remove protection for mapped core Koala habitat and to open up protected environmental zones for logging. This too is covered by Morrison’s Regional Forest Agreement. 

“If he really cared about the future of Koalas the first thing Morrison needs to do is amend the Regional Forest Agreement to ensure there are surveys by independent experts to identify core Koala habitat for protection before clearing or logging. 

“Paying for the surveys and providing assistance to affected landholders would be a good use of taxpayers money. 

“The second thing is to stop new coal and gas projects, because to have any chance of saving Koalas and the Great Barrier Reef we must act urgently to reduce our CO2 emissions, rather than increasing them. 

With the assistance of the Environmental Defenders Office, NEFA is challenging the validity of the North East NSW Regional Forest Agreement on the grounds that the Commonwealth has not duly considered climate change, threatened species and old growth forest. The case is listed for hearing by the Federal Court on 28 March. 

“For the future of Koalas, and our growing lists of threatened species, I hope we are successful” Mr. Pugh said. 

—————————————————————– 

NRC Advice – Coastal IFOA remake (November 2016) p41 

NEFA letter to NSW Environment Minister Griffin 10/1/22 https://www.nefa.org.au/fire 

[my yellow highlighting]


There is a sad list on Wikipedia containing the names of unique Australian fauna that is thought to have been driven to extinction since 1788. It includes the names of 24 birds, 4 frogs. 2 reptiles, 6 invertebrates and 26 mammals, with another 3 mammals thought to be extinct. The last extinction was listed as occurring just six years ago in 2016.

Under Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, effective July 2000, the list of fauna species driven to extinction include 22 birds, 4 frogs, 1 reptile, 1 invertebrate, 39 mammals with the last mammal extinction occurring in 2016 and, 1 fish listed as extinct in the wild since 2005.

There are another 470 birds, frogs, reptiles, mammals and fish on the EP&BC Act list which are considered Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable and another 8 fish which are considered Conservation Dependent. The last mammal classified as Endangered was the Koala in February 2022.

If one looks closely at this long list of disappeared and disappearing fauna, an uncomfortable fact presents itself – since 2014 the number of species which are another step closer to becoming functionally extinct at state, regional or local levels has increased and, some may be fully and irreversibly extinct in our lifetimes.

The plight of Australia's fauna is not an accident of history. It is the result of ignorance, greed, neglect and environmental vandalism, often ignored or condoned over centuries. For the first 113 years this occurred under Colonial and Dominion governments, however for the last 121 years this has occurred in an independent Federation under the by-laws, regulations and laws of the three tiers of government - local, state and federal. 

It is worth remembering it is federal legislation and regulations which have precedence. A fact Prime Minister Morrison is inclined to play down whenever he finds this politically inconvenient to acknowledge.

As for climate change mitigation.....


Crikey, 24 February 2022:

Australia’s largest fossil fuel companies systematically underestimate the amount of greenhouse gas emissions they will produce, according to new analysis.


What we know:

  • A report by the Australian Conservation Foundation found a fifth emit significantly more greenhouse gases than originally estimated in government approval processes (The Guardian);

  • Some fossil fuel operations emit more than 20 times what was predicted before they were approved;

  • Gas giant Chevron was the worst offender, with its Gorgon LNG plant producing an additional 16m tonnes of emissions;

  • Whitehaven’s Maules Creek coalmine was another major offender, emitting three to four times more greenhouse gas emissions than initially estimated;

  • ACF lead environmental investigator Annica Schoo said it proved the federal government’s safeguard mechanism was ineffective;

  • It comes as the Morrison government reissues almost $20m in grants to gas drilling projects in the Beetaloo Basin after the federal court thwarted its first attempt (Renew Economy);

  • A new study meanwhile finds climate change has intensified the water cycle and shifted at least twice the amount of freshwater away from warm regions than previously thought (The Guardian).


NOTE:

THE ENVIRONMENT CENTRE NT INC v MINISTER FOR RESOURCES AND WATER, THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA and IMPERIAL OIL & GAS PTY LTD (ACN 002 699 578), judgment 23 December 2021, in part reads:


“….I find that the Contracts Decision was legally unreasonable. No question arises as to the materiality of that error so as to avoid it being characterised as a jurisdictional error. Applying the approach in Project Blue Sky at [91] per McHugh, Gummow, Kirby and Hayne JJ, I accept the applicant’s submission that, where jurisdictional error is established in the exercise of the power under s 34 of the IRD Act, the Contracts Decision is invalid and, consequently, the Imperial Contracts themselves are void.”


See:

http://classic.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/FCA/2021/1635.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=Environment%20Centre%20NT


Tuesday 14 December 2021

It was the Baird Coalition Government which created the NSW Biodiversity Offsets Scheme (BOS) and successive NSW Liberal-Nationals governments have allowed it to become a trojan horse for unsustainable development and financial rorting


It was the Baird Coalition Government which created the NSW Biodiversity Offsets Scheme (BOS) which was established under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016

 Under this scheme, applications for development or clearing approvals must set out how impacts on biodiversity will be avoided and minimised. The remaining residual impacts can be offset by the purchase and/or retirement of biodiversity credits or payment to the Biodiversity Conservation Fund. 

 Landholders can enter into Biodiversity Stewardship Agreements to create offset sites on their land to generate biodiversity credits. These credits are then available to the market for purchase by developers, landholders or the Biodiversity Conservation Trust to offset the impacts of development or clearing. 

However it was a scheme loathed by the mining industry from the start as an impediment on its commercial interests and by the industry's supporters, such as National Party political robber baron and then Deputy Prime Minister John Barilaro. It was also a scheme heartily disliked by local government areas fighting to retain biodiversity, maintain healthy water sources and protect remaining forest.


Clarence Valley Independent, 15 December 2021:


A report tabled at the August 24 Clarence Valley Council (CVC) meeting warns that the NSW Biodiversity Offset Scheme (BOS) has had the opposite effect to its intention: instead of protecting the valley’s natural environment, it has “ensured a net loss to biodiversity, often of our most threatened flora and fauna”.... 


Staff advised councillors of four key issues: “a net loss of biodiversity across the LGA, a lack of stewardship sites in the Clarence (currently, there are only two stewardship sites in the Clarence), a lack of transparency in the BOS, and inconsistencies in offset prices. 


 “There is little confidence in this legislation for biodiversity conservation as offsets can be facilitated outside of the CVC local government area,” staff wrote. 


 “…credit suppliers are located all over the state, hence, if a developer can source credits, they are unlikely to be sourced within the Clarence, creating a ‘net loss’ of biodiversity.” 


On the lack of transparency, staff wrote: “Many plant community types on the floodplain, which comprises a large percentage of land being developed in the Clarence, are threatened ecological communities (TEC), which are to be offset for the same TEC, forcing developers to pay into the fund as the sole way to offset credits, as there are no locally available credits. 


“There is no way to determine if this money deposited in the trust is then used to facilitate recovery or protection of TECs in the Clarence – creating biodiversity loss.”....


Clarence Valley Council was not alone in expressing Northern NSW concerns as the Inquiry's submissions list confirmed. 


The NSW Parliament Portfolio Committee No. 7 - Environment and Planning's Inquiry into the Integrity of the NSW Biodiversity Offsets Scheme will not report until 1 March 2022, so the jury is still out on the Perrottet Coalition Government's response to its yet to be completed investigation.


However, one issue is being addressed.......



Environment reporter Lisa Fox (left)writing in The Guardian, 10 December 2021:




Officials working on conservation matters in the New South Wales environment department have been barred from holding financial interests in the state’s biodiversity offset scheme.


This follows an investigation of the department’s management of potential conflicts of interest.


Senior officials told a parliamentary inquiry on Friday that staff who work on the offset scheme or in the department’s biodiversity, conservation and science sections had been told they could not work in those roles and hold personal interests in properties and companies that were involved in the financial trade of offset credits.


It follows two external investigations that were commissioned by the department after Guardian Australia uncovered a series of failures in offset programs.


Offsets exist to allow developers to compensate for environmental damage in one area by delivering an equivalent environmental benefit in another.


But there have been problems with the system, including in one case a 20-year delay in delivering environmental protection and so-called “double-dipping” by developers in areas of urban sprawl.


Guardian Australia also revealed the state and federal governments bought tens of millions of dollars in offset credits from properties linked to consultants whose company advised the government on development in western Sydney.


The reporting triggered a string of reviews, including one by the legal firm Maddocks and one by the consultancy Centium examining how the environment department had managed potential conflicts of interest associated with staff holding financial interests in offset sites….


Dean Knudsen, the deputy secretary for biodiversity, conservation and science, told Friday’s hearing of the offset inquiry there had been fewer than five officials with such financial interests.


After the reviews, the department has introduced a new conflict of interest protocol that deems some investments “high risk” and presenting an “unacceptable risk to the integrity” of the scheme.


Knudsen said as a result, staff in certain sections could no longer participate in the scheme and those with historic interests had 12 months to divest.


For departmental staff we’ve effectively said you’re not supposed to be participating in the scheme,” he said.


If you have historically, we’ve told them what you have to do to effectively distance them from that.”


The Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann, who is chairing the inquiry, said the changes were welcome.


This should have happened at the start of the scheme to help prevent the types of windfall gains by a few individuals with detailed knowledge of the offset industry,” she said.


However, we also need to see a tightening of conflicts of interest [rules] within the industry itself, including within ecological consultancies.”


Officials were also asked about delays in securing permanent protection of offset sites to compensate for habitat destruction caused by coalmines in NSW.


Responses to questions on notice in the parliament from the independent MLC Justin Field state that of the 41 coalmines approved in New South Wales in the past decade, one did not require offsets, 14 had not yet triggered the requirement to deliver their offsets, nine had land set aside but permanent protections were not yet in place, and 17 had “substantially finalised” their offsets.


.but certain aspects – such as finalisation of some of the legal arrangements protecting the site – were outstanding.


Officials agreed the process for securing offsets for mines had not been “as timely as [they] should be”.


Field said it was not good enough that “not one single coalmine approved in the last decade has secured their required offsets through finalised in-perpetuity arrangements”.


The government needs to improve the transparency around what the hold-up is, put a deadline on finalising these arrangements and hold these mine operators to that deadline,” he said. 


Read the full article here.


Wednesday 15 September 2021

Another win for local community in the Battle for the Bylong Valley, NSW

 

Locals opposed the development of a the mine.(ABC News: Liv Casben)
















The fight to stop a multinational mining company from devouring the Bylong Valley in New South Wales began way back in 2010.


By 2015 Korean energy giant KEPCO held 7,385 hectares of freehold land in the valley for its proposed thermal coal mine.


In 2017 that landholding had grown to more than 13,000 hectares of Bylong Valley land. At that time the entire mining project was expected by KEPCO to directly impact/”disturb” est. 2,874.7 hectares within the 700 sq. km Bylong River catchment area.


IMAGE: The Land, 1 August 2017


Good agricultural land was being subsumed by this proposed mine and vital water resources threatened.


The Bylong Valley community and its supporters have fought on through a number of jurisdictions for the last ten years.


This is the latest legal success farmers & other residents from the area have achieved…….


On 14 September 2021 the NSW Supreme Court, Court of Appeal dismissed the KEPCO Bylong Australia Pty Ltd appeal of a Land and Environment Court of NSW judgment.


KEPCO was unsuccessful with respect to each of the five ground of appeal against the primary judge’s dismissal of its challenge to the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) decision and was ordered to pay the costs of the active respondent, Bylong Valley Protection Alliance Inc.


KEPCO can of course seek special permission to appeal to the High Court of Australia and, it seems likely that mindlessly pro-mining NSW Deputy Premier & Nationals MLA for Monaro John Barilaro will encourage such an action.


However, this 14 September Court of Appeal judgment was unanimous and that gives cause for comfort.


ABC News, 14 September 2021, excerpt:


Bylong Valley Protection Alliance (BVPA) president Phillip Kennedy hopes the decision will allow the community to rebuild itself.


"I'd really like to see this valley that's been purchased by Kepco under the pretense of a proposed coal mine 10 years ago when they started [to be given back]," he said.


"We would like to ask the South Korean government to release that land back, to allow the mums and dads and the farmers of Australia to come here and to bring it back to what it once was."


The appeal zeroed in on the interpretation of parts of environmental policy and whether or not the IPC's refusal was legally sound.


But today's verdict backed the IPC's judgement that the project would cause "long lasting environmental, agricultural and heritage impacts"….


Bylong Valley, NSW
IMAGE: ABC News, 17 April 2019