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Environmental leaders denounce passage of EPA reforms after WA government strips emissions conditions from big polluters while deferring key climate legislation

The WA government intends to pass its EPA Amendment Bill that will gut the independence of WA’s EPA through Parliament today, after Environment Minister Reece Whitby announced in Parliament on Tuesday that the government will no longer impose emissions conditions on major fossil fuel projects like Woodside’s Burrup Hub expansion.

The new policy and legislation relating to the EPA comes as the WA Climate Change Bill, an election promise from this government in 2021, remains abandoned indefinitely while WA remains the only state in Australia with rising emissions and no target to reduce them by 2030.

In response to the WA government’s decision to remove Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) from state environmental assessments tabled in parliament on Tuesday, the following comments are attributable to Jess Beckerling, the Executive Director of the Conservation Council of WA:

“This is incredibly disturbing.

“The WA government has just stripped itself of the ability to effectively regulate the impact of climate change from the biggest fossil fuel projects in the country including Woodside’s Burrup Hub.

“This policy change deals WA out of the process and cedes our control to Canberra when it comes to reducing emissions.

 “The safeguard mechanism has no role to play in considering climate impacts on WA’s nature - only the WA EPA has been able to do that.

“This substantially downgrades climate action and protection of WA’s nature by drastically lowering the bar to the level of the safeguard mechanism, which we know will not even get WA’s emissions back to 2005 levels by 2030 let alone the Federal Government’s 43% reduction target.

“As WA’s nature lurches from crisis to crisis, the WA government is stripping our state of protection from the runaway impacts of fossil fuel pollution.

“The only people benefitting from this are big fossil fuel polluters in WA, at the expense of any ambition for investment in renewable energy and the clean energy transition.”

The following comments can be attributed to Geoff Bice, WA Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific:

“The decision by the WA Government to walk away from its climate responsibilities is deeply disappointing.

“Minister Whitby’s decision to pass the climate buck to Canberra highlights the fundamental gaps in how major polluting projects are assessed. It paves the way for the WA government to waive through fossil fuel projects despite significant climate concerns, on the grounds that it will be captured under the weaker federal Safeguard Mechanism.

“The WA Government has relinquished its role in deciding what gets built in our state, and the impacts major projects will have on our climate and environment. This is a shocking dereliction of duty for the WA State Government, at a time when other states are setting ambitious targets for the clean energy transition.

“Ultimately, if we are serious about tackling climate pollution and reducing emissions this decade, we must stop emissions before they are produced — starting with Woodside’s proposed North West Shelf gas extension, one of the country’s most polluting fossil fuel projects which is currently undergoing state and federal approvals.

“We are experiencing the worsening impacts of the climate crisis across our state — this is not the time to weaken our climate regulations.” 

ENDS

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