Australia's 'Galapagos' marked for destruction
12 Dec 2006
WA Environment minister Mark McGowan today gave his approval to the Gorgon development on the biologically sensitive Barrow Island and made geosequestration a condition of the development.
"There are no conditions that make the choice of location acceptable on environmental grounds. The risk to wildlife from quarantine breaches is too great and there is no way the company can mitigate the impact to the turtle populations," said WWF-Australia's CEO Greg Bourne.
"Geosequestration should be an absolute requirement for energy companies exploiting CO2 rich fuels. Today's condition of making geosequestration mandatory and not just an option sets an important Australian precedent."
However, this is completely undermined by the WA Government decision to allow the project to go ahead on a class A Nature reserve."
The WA Environment Minister's decision comes only six months after the WA EPA recommended that the proposal not be permitted to proceed based on environmental grounds. The final decision on the Gorgon Development now lies in the hands of federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell.
"Barrow Island is like Australia's Galapagos, rich in endemic species, and a last bastion for many species now close to extinction. We now call on the Federal Minister Campbell to step in to require the joint venture partners to move to a more environmentally benign location on the mainland."
"We should not be carrying out our geosequestration experiments on our most biologically valuable islands," Mr Bourne said.
Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell need to be held fully accountable and responsible for the risk and cost of offsetting the carbon footprint of processing Gorgon Gas, over the entire life-span of the development. Using a carbon price of $USD30 per ton, this carries a conservative risk and liability of more than $AUD100 million per annum.
For more information
Paul Gamblin, Senior Policy Advisor, WWF-Australia
Phone: 08 9442 1207
Mobile: 0410 221 508
Dr Gilly Llewellyn, Program Leader Oceans, WWF-Australia
Phone: 02 8202 1227
Mobile: 0406 380 801
