How Tag oil drills the public (hat-tip Charlie)
“The RMA allows Councils to defer considering a consent application until all consents required for the proposal are received. It is best practice for all required consents for an activity to be identified from the outset, applied for contemporaneously and considered together. This ensures that all environmental effects can be taken into account in deciding whether consents should be granted.
“If the applicants are allowed to apply for resource consents incrementally this can mean that later consents are granted based on the baseline created by the earlier consent. This is a piecemeal approach.
“By splitting things up like this, the applicants are effectively gaming the system to make it easier for them to get consent for exploration drilling.
“We are concerned that this practice seems be spreading with oil exploration companies adopting the same approach elsewhere in the country."
Tom Belford alerts Councillors and ratepayers of what to watch out for when drillers come t0 your town.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
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4 comments:
On the West Coast, the regional council does all this for the applicant!!
That's right, a "company" owned by the regional council makes the applications on behalf of the mining and farming industry.
It's just peachy!!
If you want evidence of this, then head to the wild West. The RMA means nothing here for most issues.
Do you need a consent to operate a dunking stool on the Coast, Shunda?
And don't panic about the RMA - soon every district will be in the same position (and it's not an elegant one).
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