‘Walk away’: Bylong coal mine appeal rejected

Proponents of a controversial coal mine planned for a rich farming area north-west of Sydney have had their appeal against an earlier rejection dismissed by the courts, raising the prospect the project will be scrapped.

The Court of Appeal on Tuesday dismissed the appeal by Korean energy giant KEPCO which is seeking to build a so-called greenfield coal mine in the Bylong Valley.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against an earlier rejection of a coal mine planned for the Bylong Valley north-west of Sydney. Credit: Brendan Esposito

The Independent Planning Commission had dismissed the plan for a 6.5 million tonne a year mine two years ago, and a previous court appeal was also rejected in part because of the climate change impacts of digging up the fossil fuel.

KEPCO was also ordered to pay the court costs of the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance, which had fought against the mine proposal for years.

Rana Koroglu, a managing lawyer with the Environmental Defenders Office, said it was the third time “this destructive and climate-wrecking coal mine proposal has been defeated”.

“It’s time for the proponent KEPCO to walk away,” Ms Koroglu said in a statement. “The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report delivered a ‘code red’ for humanity on climate. It’s clear we cannot afford to develop more greenfield coal mines at a time when the world needs to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

In its September 2019 rejection, the IPC noted the Bylong Valley had a long history of farming, including horse breeding, and there was no operating or planned mine within 20 kilometres of the site.

It also estimated the combined greenhouse gas emissions from the 25-year project to be almost 201 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent, including the pollution caused by digging, transporting and burning the coal.

The EDO noted the South Korean government, KEPCO’s majority stake owner, had recently committed to increasing its emissions targets to a 40 per cent reduction compared with 2017 levels by 2030.

The Court of Appeal’s rejection of the mine has prompted calls by farmers for the government to press KEPCO to give up its land bank.Credit: Brendan Esposito

“We presented testimony from over a dozen expert witnesses and put the latest scientific evidence before the commission,” Ms Koroglu said. “The IPC made its decision based on that evidence, finding that this coal mine is not in the public interest. Two subsequent appeals have thoroughly tested and supported the IPC’s decision to refuse the mine.”

A spokesman for KEPCO said the the company was “disappointed that the court did not find in favour of the project and will now take some time to review the decision and consider [our] next steps”.

A spokesman for NSW Deputy Premier and Resources Minister John Barilaro said that “any future plans, including what KEPCO might do with land owned freehold by them, is a matter for the company”.

Stephen Galilee, the head of the NSW Minerals Council, said the project had “strong support in the local communities of Kandos and Rylstone because of the much-needed jobs and investment it would have delivered for those towns and across the region”.

“Two years and a pandemic later, the jobs and investment are now needed more than ever,” Mr Galilee said. “The reasons for the project’s rejection were flawed two years ago and they remain flawed today.”

But Bylong Valley locals and the Lock the Gate Alliance separately called on the government to assist the buyback of land KEPCO had wanted to turn into a coal mine. The company holds almost 7000 hectares in the area.

According to Lock the Gate, KEPCO had lost $US405 million ($550 million) on the project and had written down the value of the mining rights from $642 million to zero.

“There is no one operating the local store any more – the valley is a shell of its former self,” Phillip Kennedy, a spokesman for the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance, said.

“We want the Berejiklian government to extinguish the coal licence, just like it did with Shenhua on the Liverpool Plains, so Bylong can once again be the prosperous town it used to be.”

Tim Beshara, manager of Policy and Strategy at the Wilderness Society, called on the government to reconsider plans for other new coal mines in the region, which is close to the Wollemi National Park.

“This court result should cause the NSW government to reconsider their plans to open up more of the Wollemi region to new coal,” Mr Beshara said.

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