Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion halted after community legal challenge
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The expansion of MACH Energy's Mount Pleasant coal mine would result in it continuing to operate until 2048. (7.30)
A Hunter Valley community group has won a legal challenge to bring one of the largest coal mine expansions in New South Wales to a halt.
In 2022 the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) approved MACH Energy's application to extend the life of its Mount Pleasant coal mine to 2048 and increase its output.
The Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group (DAMSHEG) appealed the approval in the Supreme Court, arguing that the effects of the project on the environment and climate were not properly considered by the IPC.
The NSW Court of Appeal sided with the group on Thursday morning.
Wendy Wales says the judgement is a major win for the environment. (Supplied: Wendy Wales)
DAMSHEG president Wendy Wales said it was a "landmark case".
"We're just over the moon," she said.
The group had requested a judicial review of the approval but that was denied by the Land and Environment Court.
The Court of Appeal ruling has rendered the IPC's approval invalid.
It will be subject to a review in the Land and Environment Court.
Emissions questions
The proposed expansion would allow the company to mine an additional 247 million tonnes of coal by 2048.In court DAMSHEG argued that the effect of scope 3 emissions — those created from the burning of exported coal — was not adequately considered.
Justice Julie Ward ruled there was nothing in the IPC's reasoning that showed it had accepted the scope 3 emissions would contribute to global climate change.
"Thus, I consider that it has been established that the commission failed to consider a mandatory consideration in this regard," she said.
Coal mining is a major industry in Muswellbrook and the Upper Hunter. (ABC News: Jake Lapham)
Ms Wales said she wanted the region to move away from reliance on fossil fuels.
"We would like to see that Mount Pleasant doesn't go through till 2048, doubling its rate of production," she said.
The judge ordered MACH Energy to pay the costs incurred by DAMSHEG for the appeal.
In a statement, MACH Energy said it would carefully review the judgment and "explore all avenues to ensure continuity and certainty for the Muswellbrook community and the broader Hunter Valley Region".
The case will now proceed to the Land and Environment Court for a decision on whether the expansion approval should be reversed.
The mine employs more than 400 people in the Upper Hunter region and was previously approved to mine until the end of 2026.
Ms Wales says bringing new jobs to the Muswellbrook region needs to be the priority.
"We need to be working at how we do that and it takes all the collective brains to work towards that," she said.
"[Muswellbrook Shire] Council has been calling for much more investment in and attention to how we're going to look after the workers and the rehab of our area."
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Written by: Courtney Yeandle, ABC News.
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