Questions about lignite in Parliament

Some questions were raised by Kennedy Graham (of the Greens) about lignite mining, including the proposed briquetting plant in Southland, in parliament recently.

You can also read the transcript.

Keep the Coal in the Hole: Why NZ’s Lignite should not be Mined (Jeanette Fitzsimons)

Earlier this year, Jeanette Fitzsimons talked at four public meetings across Aotearoa hosted by Coal Action Network Aotearoa. At these meetings, she used a powerpoint presentation to supplement her talk. Please download it by clicking on the next sentence in blue.

lignite_powerpoint_Jeanette_Fitzsimons_Autumn2011

(Warning: it is a very large file, and you will need the Microsoft Powerpoint programme, or a similar open source programme like openoffice.org Impress – which you can download for free -  to open it).

Gore District Council – non-notified consent for pilot briquetting plant

Belatedly, here is the link to the Gore District Council non-notification decision (on the pilot briquetting plant in Mataura) and associated documents:

http://www.goredc.govt.nz/node/158

And, on the 7th of June, their decision to grant the consents:

http://www.goredc.govt.nz/node/175

We are still awaiting a decision from Environment Southland.

Solid Energy advised Environment Southland against notification

Having found out that Solid Energy had their lawyers write to the Gore District Council advising them against notifying the pilot briqutting plant application, we thought we’d better write to Environment Southland and ask if they’d received a similar letter.

This was our request under the Official Information Act:

Any letters received by Environment Southland from Solid Energy’s lawyers during the consideration of the pilot briquetting plant application. Including but not limited to, Solid Energy’s lawyers’ legal opinion on the matter of notification.

Here’s what we got sent: OIA_ES_SE_pilot_briquetting_plant

Solid Energy pilot briquettin​g plant consent decisions: update

Kia ora koutou,

Two Councils have to make decisions on Solid Energy’s resource consent application for its proposed pilot briquetting plant. They are Environment Southland and the Gore District Council. One has now made a decision.

Environment Southland have decided that Solid Energy’s application to build a pilot lignite-to-briquettes plant in Southland should proceed non-notified … sort of.

The “sort of” is that the approval of a range of individuals, companies and groups named in the decision is required for non-notification to proceed.

The groups and companies are:

Te Ao Marama Inc

Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu

Public Health South

Gore District Council

Fish & Game New Zealand, Southland Region

Department of Conservation

Ardle Farms Ltd (RD 21, Geraldine)

Dongwha Patinna NZ (Gore)

The individuals are:

N W Beattie (Mataura)

K A & E I Whitehead (Gore)

Clint Cummings (RD 4, Gore)

James North (RD 4, Gore)

A Riepma (Mataura)

A G & L J Perkins (RD 2, Gore)

You can view Environment Southland’s notification decision here: http://coalactionnetworkaotearoa.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/pilot-briquetting-plant-notification-document/

Here’s what Environment Southland has decided, as explained by them:

1. The approvals [of these individuals and groups] are required before the application can proceed non-notified.

2. Approvals have not yet been obtained. The applicant has been given the option of proceeding non-notified with the approvals, or proceeding by limited notification (notice sent to the affected parties). The application is on hold for either the receipt of the approvals or the applicant’s instruction to proceed by limited notification.

3. There is no set timeframe while the application is on hold for approvals.

CAN Aotearoa would have preferred that the application be fully notified, given the importance of the issues involved. At the same time, the decision as it stands at the moment still gives us some opportunities to influence the consenting process.

So, right now, there are two main lines of work being pursued by groups active in the anti-lignite campaign:

* Exploring the legal status of the notification decision

* Contacting these named groups and individuals, where appropriate, to encourage them not to give approval.

If you know any of these people, this is a good time to have a polite conversation with them, and encourage them not to give their approval. Gore District Council also has a decision to make on notification, and it has not yet done so. The latest word from Gore District Council is: “I wish to advise that the Gore District Council has not yet determined how the resource consent will be processed. The application is presently ‘on hold’ pending receipt of additional information. Upon receipt of that information the matter will be determined by independent commissioners. I will forward you a copy of their decision once it is publicly available.”

The pilot briquetting plant is just the beginning of Solid Energy’s extensive plans for lignite mining in Southland. And our opposition to it is just the beginning of the community and national opposition to those plans.

We will keep you posted on how all this goes.

Regards

Tim Jones

for Coal Action Network Aotearoa

Pilot briquetting plant notification document

Environment Southland have decided that Solid Energy’s application to build a pilot lignite-to-briquettes plant in Southland should proceed non-notified – sort-of.  And the Gore District Council are yet to make a decision.

We will post an update on this shortly, but from now here is the document from Environment Southland:  Memo_processed_non_notified_April_2011[1]

Solid Energy’s briquetting plant application

Solid Energy recently lodged their application for their pilot briquetting plant with the Gore District Council and Environment Southland.  You can read it at: Solid Energy Briquetting Demo Plant Application 22-2-2011

(Please note, this is a 10.5 MB file)

We are still waiting to see if this is publicly notified.  Locals on the ground have been doing great work to try and ensure that it is.

Backgrounders from CAN and Lower Mataura Landcare

Click to download Coal Action Network Lignite Backgrounder

CAN_Backgrounder_Summer_2010_11

Click to download Lower Mataura Landcare Lignite Backgrounder.  (Thanks to MLC for sharing this resource): lmlc_lignite_backgrounder

Briquetting Plant Announced

Solid Energy has announced its former mine site in Craig Rd, Mataura, its prefered site to build their pilot briquetting plant.

This plant is the first of many proposed. Solid Energy want to get their first lignite conversion plant up and running as soon as possible, so that it is harder to stop subsequent, larger, dirtier developments. This plant has to be stopped, and we expect it to face intensive opposition.

Coal Action Network has vowed to fight the building of this plant and has already been quoted in many media sources.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/fight-over-southland-s-black-gold-4010221

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1101/S00084/coal-action-network-slams-lignite-plans.htm

For further information on how to join the fight against Solid Energy’s plans get along to one of our public meetings, join our email list, and get active!