[Oz-envirolink] Beattie Gov't uses EPA to protect coal mining

[hugh spencer]

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21409298-27197,00.html,


"Fetch, watchdog, fetch"

Toby Hutcheon   Courier Mail  (Qld).
March 19, 2007 11:00pm


HOW many light bulbs does it take to change a coalmine? The answer seems
to be no one changes a coalmine.

At least that's what the Queensland Conservation Council found when it
challenged a coalmine expansion proposed by mining giant Xstrata and its
Japanese partners at Wollombi, west of Mackay, in Queensland.

When QCC began the landmark climate change case in the Queensland Land
and Resources Tribunal, it expected Xstrata to put up a strong fight.
What it didn't expect was the role that the Environmental Protection
Agency would take in the hearing.

The Environmental Protection Agency - would a rose by any other name
smell as sweet? - is the Queensland government department responsible
for environmental protection.

When QCC argued that conditions should be imposed to require the Xstrata
coalmine to use just a proportion of its super profits from the sale of
coal towards offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, the EPA not only sided
with Xstrata but, in an extraordinary move, went so far as to argue:

". . . there is absolutely no evidence to indicate that a reduction
today of some 5.6 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (expected annual
emissions from the mine and use of the coal) or even a reduction today
of 84 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (expected total emissions over
15 years of the mine) would have the slightest effect upon either global
warming or climate change."

So the EPA's formal and public position is that 84 million tonnes of
greenhouse gas emissions will make no difference to climate change.

Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull obviously has not heard.
He recently announced "slashing" greenhouse gas emissions by the
mandatory phasing out of incandescent light bulbs.

By 2015 if everyone in Australia switches to energy efficient lighting
we may save up to 4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions a year.

This one coalmine expansion, which is by no means large by the scale of
the Australian coal industry, will create 5.6 million tonnes of CO2
emissions a year.

That's a lot of light bulbs.

It is hard to reconcile the role of the EPA and the environmental
importance of climate change with the EPA's position. This is not simply
a situation where the EPA failed to act; this is a case where the EPA
argued against the environment.

One can only assume that the EPA's position on climate change has the
endorsement of Premier Peter Beattie, his deputy, Anna Bligh, and the
Queensland Government as a whole.

So while Australian mums and dads are rightly being urged by the Federal
Government to switch off standby lights on their televisions, change
light bulbs, and spend money on solar hot water, the Queensland
Government argues that 84 million tonnes of CO2 from Queensland coal
makes no difference at all.

This week, QCC started an appeal in the Queensland Court of Appeal
challenging the decision by the Land and Resources Tribunal.

It will be interesting to see whether the EPA will support the
tribunal's decision, which, contrary to the Australian Government
position, questions the science of climate change and the seriousness of
global warming.

It will also be interesting to hear what arguments the EPA and the
Queensland Government, on reflection, instruct their lawyers to put
forward during the appeal.

Toby Hutcheon is the co-ordinator of Queensland Conservation



-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner 
at http://lists.altnews.com.au/MailScanner.html ,
and is believed to be clean.