Yahoo News
Australia Approves Massive Coal Mine—Again
Just two months after an Australian federal court threw out
the government’s approval of one of the world’s largest coal mines
because of its expected impact on an endangered snake and lizard, the
country’s environment minister has green-lighted the project again.
That
means the Indian-owned Carmichael mine in the state of Queensland is
back on track to produce an amount of coal that, when burned, would
exceed the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 52 countries. Over its
60-year lifetime, it could emit 128 million tons of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, according to a Greenpeace report. Environmentalists also fear the project will damage the iconic Great Barrier Reef.
“Minister
[Greg] Hunt’s reapproval risks threatened species, precious
groundwater, the global climate, and taxpayers’ money,” said Peter
McCallum, spokesperson for the Mackay Conservation Group, which brought
the challenge of the mine to the federal court.
In
August, a federal court ruled that then Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s
conservative government had illegally ignored evidence showing the mine
would damage prime habitat of two endangered critters: the yakka skink—a
type of lizard—and the ornamental snake.
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