Doctors’ Woodside challenge greenlit
By Emma Young in WA Today
Environmentalists have won a court order enabling them to challenge the offshore energy regulator NOPSEMA’s environmental approval of Woodside’s major Scarborough gas project in WA’s north.
Doctors for the Environment Australia won a Federal Court maximum costs order, which limits the amount NOPSEMA and Woodside could seek in legal costs if the doctor group loses to $80,000.
DEA executive director Kate Wylie welcomed the decision, which she said recognised this case addressed important public-interest questions concerning NOPSEMA’s decision-making.
She said the project would result in the release of about 878 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere.
She said the World Health Organization had named climate change as the single biggest health threat facing humanity and in this context governments must ensure fossil fuel project approvals adhered to laws designed to protect the environment and community.
“Our communities are already experiencing multiple health harms from climate change, including the impacts of heat, floods, extreme weather events, rising sea levels, changing patterns of infectious diseases, food and water insecurity, increased cost of living, worsening mental health, loss of infrastructure and reduced capacity to provide health care,” she said.
The Environmental Defenders Office will represent the group in court, contending that NOPSEMA’s acceptance of the environment plan was unlawful because certain measures and controls in the plan relating to greenhouse gas emissions were so vague they did not comply with the regulations or meet the criteria that permit NOPSEMA to approve such a plan.
NOPSEMA could not have been reasonably satisfied the plan complied with the regulations, and therefore the decision to accept it was unlawful
DEA will also contend NOPSEMA could not have been reasonably satisfied the plan complied with the regulations, and therefore the decision to accept it was unlawful.
A hearing is scheduled for July 14 and 15.