The Queensland Conservation Council has accused Premier David Crisafulli of putting the interests of fossil fuel producers before constituents with his pledge to fast-track approvals for new mines and a defence of coal as “environmentally sustainable”.
Crisafulli made the comments in a speech to the Townsville Bulletin’s Future Townsville event, held at the Ville Resort Casino on Wednesday, saying government should get out of the way of the coal industry.
“You’re not going to wake up one day and the government wanting to whack you again,” he said. “We can offer you the ability to get approvals in a timely fashion, to not have the government breathing down your neck every minute of the day.”
The Premier also said his government would fast-track approvals for new coal mines – a trade for maintaining increased coal royalties introduced by the previous Labor government – saying he wanted to “continue to extract coal from this part of the world.”
“It’s the cleanest, the workers who go there get paid the most, it is the most environmentally sustainable,” he said.
“To shut down our coal industry would be doing nothing other than driving competitors into the arms of people who won’t do the same thing.”
Charlie Cox, coal and gas campaigner with the Queensland Conservation Council said the Premier’s comments were “dangerous and ill-informed” and suggested a disturbing direction for the new government that previously pledged to reduce the state’s emissions.
“It’s outrageous and entirely greenwashing,” Cox said. “There’s no such thing as environmentally sustainable coal. Coal projects kill koala’s twice, first when they clear their habitat to mine and then when they burn it and it causes climate change.”
Queensland Premier’s have regularly sought to promote variations of “clean coal”. In 2007, Labor Premier Peter Beattie announced a $900m fund to be managed by the Clean Coal Council to “research and identify technologies that will ensure coal can continue to be used as a clean and environmentally friendly source of energy production”.
More recently, corporate regulator ASIC took action in Federal Court against coal producer TerraCom over allegations the company lied over the quality of coal it was selling by falsifying documents and targeted a whistleblower for retaliation.
“The Premier is putting out all these messages to green industry that we’re closed for business, right as they’re really prioritising the needs of the fossil fuel industry over the needs of Queenslanders,” Cox said.
“It’s really disappointing. The Premier should be really supporting regional Queenslanders with future industries rather than the industries of the past.”
“If we can’t trust these corporations to tell us what their coal is, how do we trust them to take care of the environment?”
Crisafulli’s comments are the latest show of force in defence of coal producers since his government was elected.
Within the first 100 days of parliament the Crisafulli government established the Resources Cabinet Committee to act as a defacto taskforce across four portfolios – Resources, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment. Its stated role was to seek “solutions that will reduce delays and approval time frames” on mining projects.
At the same time the state government has introduced new consultation requirements that make it harder for wind and solar farms to get off the country in Queensland. In May it reversed the approval of the Moonlight Range wind farm that had been expected to be the first approved in the state.
These interventions echo similar moves by Republican legislators in the US state of Texas seeking to frustrate new renewable energy projects by ratcheting up regulation, including introducing a requirement that new developments must consult with anyone living within 40kms of a proposed project.
