Western Australia’s environmental watchdog’s dedication to let the nation’s largest oil and gasoline challenge function till 2070 has prompted requires federal authorities intervention.
A leaked WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) doc exhibits the regulator continues to again its suggestion that Woodside’s licence to function the North West Shelf improvement be prolonged till 2070.
The report, launched to AAP on Thursday, was a response to considered one of 776 appeals lodged with the WA authorities towards the EPA’s June 2022 recommendation to the surroundings minister concerning the challenge.
Activists are calling for the federal surroundings minister to step in and assess the North West Shelf challenge’s impacts and the dangers of its continued operation within the Pilbara.
Jess Panegyres, head of unpolluted power transition at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, mentioned the challenge must be rejected, calling it a “climate disaster”.
“Woodside’s application to extend the operation of its ageing North West Shelf gas processing factory all the way through to 2070 undermines Australia’s climate progress,” she mentioned.
“Australia has a legal commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, and Woodside’s plans would see us exporting dirty gas well into the second half of the century.”
Ms Panegyres mentioned the West Australian EPA had not taken the broader nationwide curiosity under consideration when it made its choice.
“That job now falls to federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, who must conduct a full independent assessment of the full range of impacts of this toxic project,” she mentioned.
The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility mentioned extending the challenge’s licence to function at full capability till 2070 might result in the discharge of three.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.
It can also pave the way in which for the opening of recent gasoline basins, such because the Browse Project and the Canning Basin, carbon analyst Alex Hillman mentioned.
“Combined with its recent decision to proceed with the high-risk Trion oil project in the Gulf of Mexico, Woodside’s pursuit of the North West Shelf extension tells investors exactly what it is as a company: an … oil and gas producer that is betting against a successful and orderly energy transition,” he mentioned.
The North West Shelf challenge produces greater than one-third of Australia’s oil and gasoline manufacturing for home use and export.
The $34 billion three way partnership between Woodside, BP, Chevron, Japan Australia LNG and Shell has been working for 37 years and contains the Karratha Gas Plant and three offshore platforms.
The extension proposal is for the gasoline plant, which has been working since 1984 on the rock art-rich Burrup Peninsula about 20km northwest of Karratha.
The EPA’s suggestion launched final 12 months got here with strict circumstances for greenhouse gasoline emissions to be lowered to web zero by 2050.
It additionally really helpful circumstances to make sure no opposed impacts to Indigenous rock artwork.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
