Mayors welcome less red tape for coal mines
West Coast mayors are welcoming the Government’s plan to cut red tape for coal miners, while environmentalists say it is a climate change disaster.
Yesterday Resources Minister Shane Jones announced changes to the Resource Management Act, which he said would treat coal mining the same as other extractive mining.
Forest & Bird condemned the proposal, saying it would increase environmentally destructive coal mining in wetlands and areas of significant biodiversity.
Jones said additional controls introduced by the previous Government, which would have ended the consenting pathway for existing thermal coal mines from December 31, 2030, would also be removed. The environmental protections all mining was subject to would not be removed, and the new legislation would not involve schedule 4 land, including national parks.
Coal extraction provided for the families of 280 workers at Stockton Mine, north of Westport, which produced about 80% of New Zealand’s $300 million worth of premium coal exports, used in international steelmaking.
Grey District mayor Tania Gibson said she hoped the new legislation would allow more coal mines to open on the Coast, including Spring Creek near Greymouth.
Terra Firma lodged a mining permit application to reopen the mine in 2020, but New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals issued an intention to decline it in 2022. The application remains in limbo.
Gibson said the mine would employ 50 people directly, and the coal would be used to produce the silicon used in solar panels.
Buller mayor Jamie Cleine said Stockton’s lifespan was “quite finite”, with about eight years left if it couldn’t access more land. “Coal continues to be one of our largest high-value employers.”
The coal companies regularly donated to community projects, and mitigated environmental effects with predator control operations, Cleine said.
However, Forest & Bird general counsel Peter Anderson said it was a “triple hit on the environment”. Coal Action Network Aotearoa spokesperson Jenny Campbell said Jones needed to understand that the world had moved on from coal.