Latest news with #DAMSHEG
ABC News
4 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion halted after community legal challenge
A Hunter Valley community group has won a legal challenge to bring one of the largest coal mine expansions in New South Wales to a halt. In 2022 the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) approved MACH Energy's application to extend the life of its Mount Pleasant coal mine to 2048 and increase its output. The Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group (DAMSHEG) appealed the approval in the Supreme Court, arguing that the impacts of the project on the environment and climate were not properly considered by the IPC. The NSW Court of Appeal sided with the group on Thursday morning. DAMSHEG president Wendy Wales said it was a "landmark case". "We're just over the moon," she said. The group had requested a judicial review of the approval but that was denied by the Land and Environment Court. The Court of Appeal ruling has rendered the IPC's approval invalid. It will be subject to a review in the Land and Environment Court. The proposed expansion would allow the company to mine an additional 247 million tonnes of coal by 2048. In court DAMSHEG argued that the impact of scope 3 emissions — those created from the burning of exported coal — was not adequately considered. Justice JulieWard ruled there was "nothing" in the IPC's reasoning that showed it had accepted the scope 3 emissions would contribute to global climate change. "Thus, I consider that it has been established that the commission failed to consider a mandatory consideration in this regard," she said. Ms Wales said she wanted the region to move away from reliance on fossil fuels. "We would like to see that Mount Pleasant doesn't go through till 2048, doubling its rate of production," she said. The judge ordered MACH Energy to pay the costs incurred by DAMSHEG for the appeal. The ABC has contacted MACH Energy for comment. The case will now proceed to the Land and Environment Court for a decision on whether the expansion approval should be reversed. The mine employs more than 400 people in the Upper Hunter region and was previously approved to mine until the end of 2026. Ms Wales says bringing new jobs to the Muswellbrook region needs to be the priority. "We need to be working at how we do that and it takes all the collective brains to work towards that," she said. "[Muswellbrook Shire] Council has been calling for much more investment in and attention to how we're going to look after the workers and the rehab of our area."
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
‘Significant legal breakthrough' as NSW court blocks state's largest coal expansion over emissions
The New South Wales court of appeal has overturned the approval of the largest coalmine expansion in the state after a community environment group successfully argued the planning commission failed to consider the impact of all of the project's greenhouse gas emissions. The decision is a significant blow for MACH Energy's Mount Pleasant coalmine expansion in Muswellbrook in the upper Hunter and one that climate advocates say could have wider implications for future fossil fuel project proposals in NSW. The court found the independent planning commission was required and failed to consider the impacts of all emissions associated with the project on the local environment, including from the exported emissions – known as scope 3 emissions – when the coal is sold and burnt overseas. The commission approved the Mount Pleasant mine expansion in 2022. The project would double the mine's coal output to 21m tonnes per annum until 2048 and 98% of the projected emissions are scope 3 emissions. The Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group (DAMS HEG) unsuccessfully appealed against the decision in the land and environment court last year but the court of appeal found in the group's favour on Thursday morning. Wendy Wales, the group's president, welcomed the decision and said the burning of fossil fuels was causing increasingly destructive weather events globally, including in NSW. 'Our communities are enduring increasingly terrifying climate disasters, and nature is disappearing before our very eyes. Yet our governments are continuing to throw fuel on the fire by approving massive new coal projects like MACH Energy's Mount Pleasant,' she said. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter 'It shouldn't be up to a small community group like DAMS HEG to fight this global battle, but in the absence of meaningful government action to protect us from climate harm arising from coalmines, we felt we had no choice but to stand up for our children and grandchildren, the public interest, the rule of law and nature itself,' she said. The matter will now return to the land and environment court to consider whether conditions can be imposed that would validate the approval or whether the project must return to the planning commission. DAMS HEG was represented in the appeal by Johnson Legal and counsel team Naomi Sharp SC and Matthias Thompson. Elaine Johnson, the director of Johnson Legal, said the court had determined that it was the planning commission's job to consider the link between fossil fuel expansions and climate harm felt by local communities in NSW. 'Today's decision has broad-ranging implications for all new and expanded fossil fuel projects in NSW. No longer can the NSW government say that climate impacts felt by local communities in NSW are divorced from the continued production of coal and gas in the state,' she said. Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion 'It's difficult to see how further fossil fuel expansions will pass muster following today's decision.' Johnson said the judgment built on the landmark 2019 Rocky Hill finding by the land and environment court, which cited climate change in its reasons for upholding a planning commission decision to reject Gloucester Resources' proposed Rocky Hill coalmine in the Hunter Valley. The NSW Greens spokesperson for planning and the environment, Sue Higginson, said the case was 'a significant legal breakthrough and will send shockwaves through a planning system and a government that has been failing to take real action to prevent climate breakdown'. 'The court has ruled that the government bears responsibility for the emissions that they create as a result of the fossil fuel projects they approve,' she said. 'This is a giant leap forward in holding our governments to account when it comes to the damage they are doing to our climate and local communities through waving through more coal and gas projects.' The planning commission said it respected the decision of the court of appeal. Guardian Australia has sought comment from MACH Energy.
