Coal news and updates

The Queensland state government may allow mining companies to force owners to sell their land to make way for a railway line to take coal from the Galilee Basin.

 

Environmental groups are concerned about damage to the Great Barrier Reef from the government's plans to encourage mining in the region, outlined in the Galilee Basin Development Strategy released by premier Campbell Newman this week.

 

The government is proposing cuts to royalties payable by the first mining company to start operating in the region, and "streamlining" the approval process.

 

The government says it will leave it to a mining company to build a railway line from the basin to the port at Abbot Point, but then designate it as community infrastructure so that other mining companies could also use it.

 

"Importantly, the government recognises that significant delays to projects can occur as private sector developers face difficulties acquiring the land needed to develop railway corridors over significant distances, and that compulsory land acquisition may be required," the report says.

 

The government also lists the expansion of Abbot Point as a priority and endorses plans to make it the "worldwide gateway" to the Galilee Basin.

 

The Great Barrier Reef campaign director for the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Felicity Wishart, said the society feared spoil from dredging the port would be dumped on the reef and increased shipping would have a negative impact.

 

"This would be the world's biggest coal port, just 50 kilometres from the Whitsunday islands," she said. "I've had tourism operators asking me, 'Should I continue to invest in this or should I sell up and get out before the reef is gone?'."

 

Wishart said "massive" stockpiles of coal would be stored alongside nationally significant wetlands if the plans went ahead.

 

"As for the tax breaks, it suggests to me the companies' projects are not financially viable on their own, which could mean the region might not get the economic benefits they're being promised," she said.

 

"The government wouldn't give these types of tax breaks to the solar or wind industries, so why coal?"The plans have been met with almost universal criticism from environmental groups as well as mining magnate Clive Palmer, whose 2009 proposal for the region – China First – included open-cut and underground mines as well as plans for a railway.

 

Last week Palmer accused the Queensland government of having given "favourable treatment" to Gina Rinehart after the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, approved her GVK-backed proposal to open the biggest coal mine in Australia in the Galilee Basin.

 

"Nothing is happening in central Queensland, there is no infrastructure and the government needs to reconcile with all parties with projects proposed for the Galilee Basin," Palmer said in a statement.

 

"The China First project has been awaiting government approval for five years. The state desperately needs the revenue from the project and the increase in services it will provide for schools, the health system, police and the independence of the judiciary.

 

"Mr Newman needs to come back to Waratah Coal to get the China First project moving forward."

 

Palmer did not respond directly to questions from Guardian Australia about the cuts to royalties and other tax breaks, which have been labelled a taxpayer hand-out to Palmer and Rinehart by opponents of the plan.

 

Greenpeace spokeswoman Louise Matthiesson said the plan to consider royalty cuts suggested huge new mines in the basin were not independently viable.

 

"We are really concerned that ordinary mum and dad taxpayers are going to be giving a handout to the likes of Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer," she said in Brisbane on Thursday.

 

Greens senator Larissa Waters agreed, saying discounts would make them even richer at the expense of the reef, groundwater and climate.

 

"People like Clive Palmer don't need any help making even more money, especially when their mega-profits go to buying political power, as a federal parliamentary inquiry is now set to investigate," she said in a statement.

 

In the report the government said the incentives it was considering were an acknowledgment of the "significant upfront costs" associated with investment in a new region with limited infrastructure.

 

It claimed to have reduced environmental approval assessment times by 50% and hoped to go further in "streamlining" the approval process for mines.

 

The government said it would consult residents before it approved compulsory land acquisitions.

 

"The government will strike the right balance between the interests of stakeholders, including landholders and the community," the report says.

 

"It will encourage incremental expansion where feasible and ask proponents to minimise impacts on landholders and the environment wherever possible."

 

As well as Palmer and Rinehart, the Indian energy company Adani has plans for mines in the region.

 

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/