Korean energy giant loses last-ditch legal challenge over massive NSW mine

A Korean energy giant has been sent packing by the High Court after losing its last-ditch legal challenge to build a massive coalmine in NSW.

Korean energy giant KEPCO has lost its final bid to build a massive coalmine in NSW’s Bylong Valley.

A Korean energy giant has lost its last-ditch bid to build a new open-cut coalmine in the heart of regional NSW after the High Court dismissed its legal challenge.

KEPCO, South Korea’s biggest supplier of electricity, was seeking special leave to appeal a 2019 decision by NSW’s Independent Planning Commission (IPC) to refuse the mine project in the Bylong Valley, northwest of Sydney.

The mine, dubbed the Bylong Coal Project, would have produced 6.5 million tonnes of coal per year over its 25-year life span.

The High Court has dismissed energy giant KEPCO’s special leave to appeal a decision over its controversial Bylong Coal Project in regional NSW.

But in a landslide victory for local environmentalists, the High Court of Australia dismissed KEPCO’s appeal on Thursday.

In their judgment, justices James Edelman and Michelle Gordan said there was “no question of principle which it would be in the interests of justice for this court to consider”.

“An appeal to this court would not enjoy sufficient prospects of success to warrant the grant of special leave to appeal,” the judgment reads.

The decision marks the end of a lengthy legal resistance by the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance (BVPA), who had fought KEPCO in the Land Court, IPC, Court of Appeal and High Court.

In September 2019, the IPC said the Bylong Coal Project would have an adverse impact on the groundwater, climate, agricultural land and the aesthetic, scenic, heritage and natural values of the valley itself.

KEPCO had appealed the decision in the NSW Land and Environment Court and Court of Appeal but did not succeed in either jurisdiction.

The NSW Independent Planning Commission said the mine would have adverse environmental impacts.

The Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), which represented the BVPA in court, said the initial decision to refuse the mine was sound.

“It was based on the evidence and the science, including evidence about the ‘problematical’ greenhouse gas emissions,” EDO managing lawyer Rana Koroglu said.

“It means the IPC can be assured that an evidence-based decision to reject these kinds of destructive fossil fuel projects in the future is legally supported.”

Ms Koroglu said the mine itself would have produced more than 200 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and hampered global efforts to limit climate change.

“We could not be more delighted for our clients, who have dedicated years of their lives to challenging this destructive and inappropriate coalmine proposal.”

KEPCO’s Australian office was contacted for comment.

BVPA president Phillip Kennedy said: “We want to plan our future on our farms, and we look forward to continuing to supply Australians with food, fibre, and fodder from an agricultural powerhouse with the best soils in the country.”