A parliamentary commissioner wants Environment Southland to voice concern to the Government about the potential large-scale processing of "dirty lignite" near Mataura.
Parliamentary commissioner for the environment Jan Wright was in Southland for the past two days and on Thursday said she was concerned about Solid Energy's plans to process lignite at Mataura because large-scale use could have serious environmental and climatic implications.
Solid Energy has started building a $25 million lignite-to-briquettes pilot plant at Mataura and is investigating turning lignite into both urea and diesel.
Briquettes were a cleaner way of burning lignite than in its raw form but, because of lignite's poor quality, when processed to create urea or diesel it released large volumes of carbon dioxide – about eight times the amount to create diesel compared to using petroleum, Dr Wright said.
It was for this reason she wanted Environment Southland to consider the effects of lignite and to express concerns to the Government about its impact on the entire nation.
Under the Resource Management Act the council had no powers to make decisions based on greenhouse gases, but "there is nothing stopping them from saying what they think to the Government", Dr Wright said.
However, Environment Southland chief executive Ciaran Keogh disagreed and said while he thought Dr Wright did a great job, it was not up to the regional council to make a statement about how lignite potentially affected the environment.
The regional council was a regulatory body and by making an evaluating statement about the effect of lignite it could dis-qualify it from its role, Mr Keogh said.
Climate change was for Parliament to address and the regional council had to remain impartial to process consent applications, he said.
"Greenhouse gas is for Parliament to address and for us to stay right out of."
Yesterday, Dr Wright met councillors and chief executives from Environment Southland, the Invercargill city, Southland and Gore district councils, and reiterated her concerns.
During her visit she received a briefing on the Waituna Lagoon and said she could understand the difficult task that lay ahead.
"The state of it is falling so fast, which is truly alarming."
- The Southland Times
2 comments:
So the people we elect to oversee our local environment cannot comment on potential adverse effects. They must sit on their hands and wait for central government to do the right thing.
We know from history how they regard our Southern resources and what was eventually needed to save Manapouri.
The National led government just see Southland as the fossil fuel capital of New Zealand, Lignite City!
I refuse to roll over and let them away with it, I'm with Jan Wright - Leave the Lignite, Save the Soil!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leave-the-Lignite-Save-the-Soil/129179047159254
And our souls, Dave :-)
I'm not keen to be a resident in Mr Keys' 'engine room of New Zealand' - that would be an oily, smoky, gassy place and I like a green and pleasant land.
I am concerned that Southland has been ear-marked for the grubby work, Dave, by people who don't live here, and I include Bill English in that category :-)
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