Wind and solar developers hope for faster decisions after 11th hour nature deal between Labor and Greens

The renewable energy industry is hoping for a faster route to decisions for new wind, solar and battery projects following a landmark and 11th hour deal on federal environmental regulations between Labor and The Greens.

The Greens agreed to changes to the bill, some offered just days ago, that will see an exemption for native logging from the federal process removed – in 18 months time – and will also mean that new coal and gas projects are not allowed to use a “national interest” 30-day fast track process. 

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) process has incredibly burdensome, especially for wind projects.

According to data from RenewMap, there are 230 solar, wind, battery and pumped hydro projects currently named as “controlled actions” under the EPBC and which are still being assessed.

Of these, 88 are wind projects, 10 of which have been in the EPBC system for five years or more and 50 have been in the system between one and four years.

Clean Energy Investor Group chief Richie Merzian hopes the reforms will allow clean energy projects to move through faster, and is keen to see how it will benefit those projects currently stuck inside the EPBC process.

But it’s the regional planning framework that he hopes will bring down renewable energy costs and allow projects to get off the ground faster.

“The way we interpret it is the government will play a greater role on doing the initial work on assessing regional spaces, doing the bioregional work early on so renewable energy proponents don’t have to start from scratch in each location,” Merzian told Renew Economy.

“The other bit we thought was useful was having an offset fund, so the government playing a role in procuring offset land rather than every punter having to come and compete for buying offset land that accord with their projects, and riving up price and creating more friction.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the reforms “a new era for the environment and productivity”. 

“These reforms will help us meet our national priorities of building more homes, rolling out more renewables and accessing more critical minerals,” he said in a statement.  “They are also crucial to our Future Made in Australia agenda.”

The prime minister praised Greens leader Larissa Waters and environment spokesman Sarah Hanson-Young for their “maturity” during negotiations and said he’d had talks with Opposition leader Sussan Ley, but the Coalition continued to ask for more amendments.

The reforms to the 1999-era EPBC Act will keep “water trigger” coal and gas projects under federal purview, impose higher penalties on environmental law breaches and, importantly, establish a national Environment Protection Agency (EPA).

It reduces duplication with state processes through new bilateral agreements, and introduces the idea of regional planning that takes in the cumulative impacts at a “landscape scale” rather than project-by-project assessments.

It also hopes to incentivise projects to meet standards up front, with a streamlined assessment pathway for proponents who provide enough information upfront.

The original bill would have sped up fossil fuel approvals and delegated the water trigger, where governments need to consider the impact of coal and gas projects on water resources, to states.  

Politicking put aside as parties take a win

Most environmental organisations welcomed the changes, with groups from the WWF to the Climate Council, and others such as the Property Council of Australia, offering praise for the 11th hour deal done.

But the Greens have made it clear their cooperation is also somewhat grudging, calling the bill a significant win for nature but “woefully short” of what is needed. The Bob Brown Foundation applauded the Greens ability to gain concessions, but expressed concern it fell way short on native logging.

The Greens had wanted to also see a climate trigger that would factor the climate impact of a project into the decision making process, something that current environment minister Murray Watt rejected when he assumed the role.   

“Greens pressure made this bill better than the weak laws we have now, and infinitely better than if the government had done a deal with the climate deniers in the Coalition,” said Greens leader senator Larissa Waters. 

“Labor has again refused to take meaningful climate action. The Greens stopped Labor’s fast-tracking of coal and gas, but their straight up refusal to add climate to these laws shows Labor puts coal and gas corporate profits ahead of the millions of people who want to protect the climate.”

The party’s environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young, who co-led the talks with Labor, offered a more hopeful perspective saying the original bill was “clearly written to get a deal with the Coalition.” 

“It was full of carve outs and loop holes that would have allowed big corporations to trash our environment,” she said. 

“Now, this is an environmental protection bill that does what it says on the tin.”

Climate Councillor Tim Flannery said the talks proved the two parties could work together “to secure real wins”, but noted that with 42 coal and gas projects currently in the assessment pipeline, work remains to be done to bring down fossil fuel pollution. 

“Until we better regulate fossil fuel projects, one fifth of Australia’s climate pollution, a safer future for us and our kids will fall further out of reach,” he said.

The final days of the reform negotiations exposed a tripwire for Jackie Trad, the new CEO of the Clean Energy Council, who was caught advocating for gas and coal to remain inside the 30-day fast track process.

In an interview with the ABC, Trad said “as long as we need coal, coking coal particularly, to build the steel so we can have more houses, so we can have the infrastructure… I would hate to see that we would be stopping projects where we could actually guarantee that we would have coking coal.”

That position from the head of the clean energy lobby has raised eyebrows.

Renew Economy contributor Ketan Joshi expressed astonishment on LinkedIn that the head of the CEC would be “actively and voluntarily advocating for the use of fossil fuels, and repeating what seems to be an astonishingly flimsy rationalisation for it.”

“The renewable energy industry pushing for looser regulations and environmental protections to allow for more projects – even if that eases coal and gas extraction approvals – is obviously a hypocritical one,” he said

In comments today, however, Trad said the clean energy industry exists because of the need to protect the environment and pointed to the regional planning changes as key to to supporting better environmental outcomes.

“The CEC has long advocated for modernising Australia’s environmental laws, however, the hard work continues from here to implement these reforms, and we encourage all states and territories to collaborate on its implementation,” she said in a statement.

“We look forward to working in a more streamlined way in delivering the clean energy rollout in the national interest.”

Not all environment groups were quick to praise. Australia’s eight state and territory conservation councils highlighted fears about hand approval powers to states and territories, and that the reforms could fast track mining and land clearing via a streamlined process.

Sour response from coal, gas lobbies

The peak mining organisations are unimpressed with the reforms, with Australian Energy Producers CEO Samantha McCulloch called the coal and gas carve out from the 30-day process a “squandered opportunity” that will cause “more red tape and uncertainty instead of enabling new gas supply.”

The Minerals Council of Australia is annoyed by the promise of an EPA which is not limited to just compliance, enforcement and assurance functions, and by the Greens win to have mining operations make climate disclosures under the EPBC Act, which major polluters already have to do under the Safeguard Mechanism.

Tying off a five year promise

The reforms have taken years to decide on and get into parliament, after Graeme Samuel’s independent review in 2020 called the EPBC out for not actually protecting the environment. The review said the carve out for native forest logging from the EPBC was one of its more egregious problems. 

A thwarted attempt under Tanya Plibersek saw the reforms split into three to satisfy business and Western Australia, before being torched in late 2024 by Albanese ahead of the federal election this year. 

Watt promised to push all of the reforms through as one package and within 18 months.