The Albanese Government looks to be limbering up for a festive season coal mine triple shot after it officially rejected reconsideration requests for three coal expansions that were subject to the landmark Living Wonders legal challenge.
Yesterday, the federal EPBC portal pages for Idemitsu’s Boggabri, BHP’s Caval Ridge, and Jellinbah Group’s Lake Vermont coal expansion projects were all updated to note the Living Wonders reconsideration request had been rejected.
This means the three massive coal projects moved another step through the federal environmental assessment process, indicating that a final decision is imminent. It follows the approval of three other giant coal approvals in September this year.
The three new expansions would collectively be responsible for more than one billion tonnes of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to more than double Australia’s domestic annual emissions.
The projects will be decided without any proper consideration of their climate impacts after the Albanese Government refused to create a climate trigger in national laws, despite the Federal Court this year noting the ‘ill-suitedness of the present legislative scheme of the EPBC Act to the assessment of environmental threats such as climate change and global warming’.
Fast facts:
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Lake Vermont would clear 100 hectares of endangered koala habitat and drain more than 5 billion litres of groundwater.
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Caval Ridge would leave unrehabilitated pit voids covering more than 500 hectares and discharge mine wastewater into Cherwell Creek, posing a risk to threatened turtles.
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Idemitsu was previously penalised for stealing more than 500 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of water at its existing Boggabri coal mine during a drought.
Lock the Gate Alliance Central Queensland Coordinator Claire Gronow said, “The Albanese Government's continued approval of new and expanding coal projects is fueling the worsening climate crisis and having devastating impacts on Australian communities.
“Just last weekend cars in Brisbane were swept away in torrential flooding and Australia just recorded its hottest spring on record, with temperatures more than two degrees above the long term average. The Albanese Government turns a blind eye to all this while the fossil fuel industry demands approval of more climate-wrecking coal mines.
“What we really need from the Albanese government is accelerated economic diversification and funding to support workers and create new industries in coal-affected communities.
“It’s not too late for the Albanese Government to listen to the thousands of Australians whose lives have been upended due to extreme weather events made worse due to the mining and burning of fossil fuels.
“It’s not too late for the Albanese Government to stop pandering to the coal lobby and instead take its cues from the Federal Court - immediately putting a climate trigger in national environment laws and rejecting polluting coal expansions that put Australians at risk.”
ENDS