State EPA waves through Gina Rinehart’s new gas plant, refers cockatoo question to mining department

Western Australia’s environmental watchdog has waved through a new $850 million gas processing plant owned by Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, saying its effect on local flora and fauna and supporting ecosystems are negligible.

That assessment is infuriating local environmental groups, who have already called into question the cumulative impacts of the plant. 

The Belisama gas project – named after a Celtic goddess of light and fire – will process 210 terajoules of gas a day from the Lockyer field, about 350km north of Perth, and will need a processing facility, underground pipelines, and pipes to connect to the gas grid about 100km north-west in Geraldton.

The state’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) says this operation would remove nearly 6 hectares of native vegetation from a footprint of 292 hectares, and deferred assessment of any clearing to the state’s mines and water departments. 

In 2024, it decided an alternative plan for a processing plant at the Lockyer gas field also didn’t need EPA oversight.

The latest decision for the processing plant and pipelines is based on estimates by Hancock Energy, the gas subsidiary of the iron ore company, that land clearing and construction will cost 97,542 tonnes of CO2-e and an annual water use of 300 million litres.

“No threatened flora, threatened ecological communities (TECs) or priority ecological communities (PECs) have been recorded within the development envelope,” the EPA said in its decision not to do a formal assessment of the project. 

“The EPA has confidence that the impacts to Inland Waters can be managed through the assessment processes.

“The EPA notes that scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions for the proposal are below the 100,000 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2-e) per annum threshold that would typically warrant further assessment.”

Conservation Council of Western Australia (CCWA) executive director Matt Roberts called the decision a “dangerous erosion of EPA responsibilities. 

The CCWA has been campaigning on the grounds that the plant will produce  2.15 million tonnes of direct emissions over its lifetime, and 109 million tonnes of Scope 3 emissions. 

In addition to the 9 billion litres of ground water needed over the 30 years of operation and the cumulative impact of removing more Carnaby’s black cockatoo habitat and foraging vegetation in areas where little is left, the impacts are broader than those assessed by the EPA, CCWA says. 

“Adding 109 million tonnes of climate polluting emissions into the atmosphere is not going to get us to net zero.  That it’s not even being assessed by our independent environmental regulator – the EPA – is astonishing,” Roberts said in a statement. 

“The EPA is not considering what the likely impacts of a project will be on the environment; it’s considering which agencies can be responsible for licensing different components. This is not the role of the EPA and does not meet their purpose to ensure protection of the environment.”

“We need strong leadership from the EPA, so it can stand up to polluting proposals like this one from a billionaire mining baron. And at the same time, we need strong environment laws to hold the EPA itself to account.”

Rinehart, who owns the controlling stake in the Hancock Energy parent company, has been vocal about her opposition to renewable energy and net zero, positions that have been enthusiastically adopted by political party One Nation.

The mining companies Rinehart has invested in, however, hold different views.

Liontown Resources and Lynas Rare Earths both say their wind and solar generators are protecting them from high diesel prices, achieving more than 80 per cent and 95.7 per cent renewables penetration respectectively at their operations.

Another investee, Arafura Resources, will largely produce minerals for wind turbines and electric vehicles, and its main mine is almost entirely funded by government handouts and discount loans, and government off-take agreements.

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