Minns Moves to Bypass Courts for Mount Pleasant Coal — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Chris Minns announced plans for special legislation allowing MACH Energy to increase production at its Mount Pleasant coalmine by nearly a third, bypassing the state's usual planning approval process and scrutiny by the courts.
- High Court found earlier this month that conditions aimed at reducing the climate pollution from burning Australian coal overseas had not been properly considered when the 'Mount Pleasant Optimisation Project' received NSW approval; mining interests called the ruling a threat to investment.
- Wendy Wales and Tony Lonergan, the retired science teachers who led the Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group, spent four years fighting MACH Energy's Mount Pleasant expansion and won the case.
- Mount Pleasant already has approval to operate until 2032, yet Minns says the special legislation is necessary to protect 400 jobs.
- International Energy Agency, of which Australia is a member, has said since 2021 that no new or expanded coalmines, or oil and gasfields are needed on the pathway to global net zero emissions by 2050.
- Jack Egan, who lost his home with his partner Cath in the Currowan fire on New Year's Eve 2019, joined nine other Australians in a 'Hard Truths' case before the United Nations human rights committee asking whether Australia is breaching human rights through continued approval and support of coal and gas exports, citing rights to life, family and home and First Nations rights to protect Country and culture.
Why it matters: Minns's 400-jobs rationale rests on a mine already approved to operate until 2032, while the High Court had already faulted that approval for not properly weighing conditions on overseas coal pollution. The community group's four-year win now hinges on a legal shortcut that bypasses the usual planning approval process and court scrutiny.
Ask SkimNews
