Not the time to be optimistic about fresh coal projects

06 Oct 2024, 21:00 by Phillip O'Neill · Newcastle Herald

Early last month, the MP for Hunter, Labor's Dan Repacholi, made a wish to parliament.

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I want, he said, the "last piece of coal ever to burn to come from our mines in the Hunter Valley."

It was national Minerals Week and sector lobbyists were gathering for a gala dinner that evening in the parliament's Great Hall.

No doubt they responded warmly to Mr Repacholi's overtures, chipper at Dan's affirmation that "...even after our last coal-fired power station is closed in Australia, our coal will still be mined and exported for decades and decades to come."

"We will mine it, and we will sell it," said Mr Repacholi, "until the day there is no-one who wants to buy it."

Of course, there are many living on the same planet as Mr Repacholi - that's the planet third from the sun, the one where overheating is a growing problem - who hold the contrary view.

One such group - the Environment Council of Central Queensland - asked the federal court in July 2022 to overturn approvals by federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, of expansion projects at two NSW mines, the Narrabri Underground Extension Project and the Mt Pleasant Optimisation Project.

In May this year the court ruled in favour of the minister, acknowledging that under current law the minister is not required to explicitly consider climate change impacts when assessing the environmental impacts of coal mining.

In August, the High Court denied the applicants the right of further appeal, freeing up Minister Plibersek to release her decision a fortnight ago. Go ahead, she declared, extend your mines, Narrabri until 2044, Mt Pleasant until 2048, adding a third, Ashton Coal Operations' Ravensworth Underground Mine with an extension until 2032.

Mr Repacholi was chuffed. "This is fantastic news for the Hunter," he told ABC Newcastle's Jenny Marchant and Dan Cox, saying the approval decision has "...secured jobs in our area for decades to come."

Many disagree. Writing on this page later that week, Newcastle medico Dr John Van Der Kallen described the decision to approve the mine extensions as "reckless". Dr Van Der Kallen detailed the effects of coal mining on human health, from the impacts of dust on local residents through to the manifold impacts of global warming.

Addressing the wisdom of flogging coal while ever there are buyers, the doctor explains, "the physics is exactly the same if the coal is burned overseas rather than in Australia." Mr Repacholi should reflect on this simply worded truth.

The decision pathways the three mine-extensions have gone through say loads about the future of Hunter coal. First, we see nervousness from the coal sector about future approvals. Development applications for the three projects are encased in weasel words, like 'optimisation', hardly a term in the dictionary of a hardened mining engineer confident about coal's future.

Second, we see nervousness from the regulators.

These projects have been washing around the desks of decision makers for years, through the torture of NSW Department of Planning procedures for state significant projects, the expert microscopes of the NSW Independent Planning Commission, the bureaucratic examinations of the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the deliberations of the NSW Land and Environment Court, the Federal Court and the High Court, and eventually within the office of minister Plibersek.

These are not the times to be optimistic about a fresh round of coal projects.

Third, we see nervousness from coal investors. The two projects approved in the Hunter are cast offs from firms exiting coal. One, Mt Pleasant, was acquired subsequently by the Salim Group, a giant Indonesian conglomerate; the other, Ashton Coal-Ravensworth, by Yancoal, effectively a Chinese-owned state enterprise. Are these the operators you trust to manage Hunter coal through its last days?

This nervousness is understandable: as the contribution of renewables grows, as public pressure to exit fossil fuels strengthens, as global firms commit to sustainability principles, as regulations governing mining toughen, as dinosaur politicians near extinction.

Phillip O'Neill is professor of economic geography at Western Sydney University

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