A decision by the federal government to extend three coal mines, including Whitehaven’s mine at Narrabri, is in line with climate laws, the environment minister says, despite environmentalist claims.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek signed off on Tuesday to extensions to two coal mines in the NSW Hunter Valley as well as the stage 3 expansion of Whitehaven’s Narrabri mine.
The Narrabri underground coal mine, which employs hundreds of locals, now has the green light to extend south of the existing coal mine but within the existing exploration lease area. This project extends the life of the mine from 2031 to 2044.
The project was initially approved by the NSW Independent Planning Commission in April 2022. In a statement issued to the ASX, Whitehaven have been critical of the ‘indulgence’ of environmental campaigners.
” Significant delays to this approval arising from unnecessarily protracted State and Federal Government assessment processes have in this case been exacerbated by indulging Green claims through the administrative and legal systems.”
“This undermines Australia’s status as a destination for foreign investment – which for the Narrabri Mine
includes Japanese, Korean and Chinese Joint Venture partners – and curtails the economic contribution of our resources sector, which has underpinned Australia’s prosperity for decades.”
Ms Plibersek said the decision was consistent with environmental laws.
“The Albanese government has to make decisions in accordance with the facts and the national environmental law, that’s what happened on every project and that’s what’s happened here,” she said in a statement.
“The government will continue to consider each project on a case-by-case basis, under the law. These are not new projects, these three approvals are all extensions of existing operations.”
It’s expected emissions from the extensions meet the threshold under the federal government’s safeguard mechanism, which aims at reducing emissions from large industrial sites.
“The emissions from these projects will be considered by (Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen) under the government’s strong climate laws that were supported by the Greens political party and independents.
Jo Dodds, President of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, who lives on the NSW South Coast, claims that Narrabri locals don’t support the mine.
“BSCA visited the Narrabri community during preparation for our legal action to stop the expansion of the Whitehaven coal mine. We talked to locals, business owners, First Nations people, farmers and politicians. Not one person we talked to was happy about the mine.”
The charity failed in its attempts to get the courts to overturn the NSW Independent Planning Commission approval of the Whitehaven Stage 3 extension.
The other extensions granted in the Hunter Valley were for Ashton Coal’s Ravensworth mine and Mach Energy’s Mount Pleasant optimisation project.
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