Local farmers and environment groups say Whitehaven’s project will drive further climate catastrophe
The NSW Greens and an independent MP said the project would drive further climate catastrophe at a time when residents of the state were already experiencing extreme weather events with greater frequency, had lived through the state’s worst bushfires and were now in the grips of another flood disaster.
The project will extend the mine’s life by 13 years to 2044 and increase the total coal mined from 170m to about 252m tonnes.on the project, including requirements that it mitigate its emissions, monitor air quality and groundwater, and offset harm to threatened species habitat.
But it said there were opportunities for Whitehaven to “deploy existing, emerging and future technologies” to improve its abatement of those emissions and to potentially benefit from “new revenue streams to the mining sector” by capturing those emissions. Justin Field, an independent MLC, said the commission’s decision was “unfathomable given the catastrophic climate driven events of the last month”.
Whitehaven was awarded its approval just one day after it received another fine for breaches of environmental conditions at one of its projects.Whitehaven to pay $158,750 for polluting a creek with styrofoam balls at its Maules Creek mine site.But the IPC cannot legally consider the previous actions of a proponent when weighing up an application.
Flynn said it was “no surprise” the majority of public submissions the commission received from the local area and wider Narrabri region supported the project.
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