The Wilderness Society has launched action in the federal court to try to stop Norwegian energy company Equinor drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight
"[But] it is patently clear that Equinor has refused to undertake best practice consultation, and it is our view that it didn't even meet the basic regulatory requirements. Our view is that NOPSEMA made an important legal error in accepting Equinor's substandard consultation."
"We have no doubt that if Equinor had fully and legally consulted with these parties, its plans would have been better informed and more robust. Instead, it is our view that it now holds an invalid approval.
"We don't want Equinor to put our sea and our place of the whales at risk. We don't want pollution causing destruction and poisoning our sea and land. I do not want my home, my tradition destroyed and lost forever," he said.Equinor has previously argued"major oil spills are extremely rare". "In approximately 59,000 offshore wells drilled around the world since 1980, there have been only two major oil spill incidents," it said.It must still have a well operations plan and a facility safety case approved before it can begin drilling its proposed Stromlo-1 well in water more than 2.2 kilometres deep.
If approved, Equinor plans to begin work in late 2020 with the operations expected to last for 60 days.
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