Conservation groups are hoping to put the brakes on a major gas mining project extension in a landmark legal showdown.
Hearings will begin on Tuesday for Federal Court challenges by two groups to Environment Minister Murray Watt’s decision to grant a 40-year extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas hub, in WA’s Pilbara region.
The Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of Australian Rock Art claim the project’s extension will heavily contribute to adverse climate change impacts and harm 40,000-year-old rock art.
They argue the minister signed off on extending operations until 2070, without knowing the details of the gas project and what pollution it will cause.
Lawyers for the Australian Conservation Foundation will argue the minister wrongly considered the economic benefits of an unapproved Browse gas project – a separate Woodside proposal to develop a gas field off the Kimberley coast.
Senator Watt also failed to consider the physical effects of climate change as an “impact”, the foundation says.
In a submission to the court, lawyers for the minister argued the grounds on which the groups were challenging the decision were invalid and should be dismissed.
Woodside will also weigh in during the hearings to defend the project’s extension, arguing the approval followed a comprehensive and extended assessment carried out by both commonwealth and state regulators in accordance with statutory processes.
Friends of Australian Rock Art said its challenge was launched on top of its ongoing WA Supreme Court action against the North West Shelf’s state approval.
Its lawyers argue the hub extension approval was invalid because the minister failed to properly take into consideration the economic and social harms that would result from ongoing damage to heritage for the Murujuga people.
The North West Shelf project extension was referred to the federal regulator in November 2018 and was under assessment for nearly seven years, Woodside has said.
According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, if it goes ahead, by 2070 the North West Shelf Extension will generate around four billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions – roughly 10 times Australia’s total annual emissions.
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