https://share.google/1CwTO1kJx4rIo8iew

This documentary premiered at Parliament recently; here is the press release from that event, featuring Jenny Patrick OBE, the author of the historical novel, “Denniston Rose”:

https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/resources/denniston-rose-author-backs-petition-stop-mega-coal-mine

Forest and Bird have launched a national petition that asks for more than just stopping the mine; it demands a permanent solution, calling on the Government to reclassify the public conservation land on the Denniston Plateau as a Scientific Reserve.

This is the only rational, long-term solution to protect its unique ecosystems and ensure we are not fighting this same battle every decade.

• Please sign and share the petition here: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/petitions/make-denniston-scientific-reserve

Bathurst’s proposal for open-cast mining of the Denniston Plateau and Mt. Frederick is already on shaky ground. They face significant financial hurdles, and are in litigation with their business partner, Talley’s, in what seems like an attempt to get money out – Talley’s are aware of the risks if Bathurst spend a bunch of money developing these new mines and then soft demand results in Bathurst going belly-up, with nothing for Talley’s.

Globally, the coking coal market is turning. This year, China announced it will not consent new coal-powered steel foundries, and the global coking coal price has softened in response to oversupply.

It doesn’t take many of these factors stacking up to make the entire operation economically unviable.

WITH YOUR HELP, WE WILL WIN THIS!

Kia Kaha,

Coal Action Network Aotearoa

The post The Save Denniston campaign kicks into high gear appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

(For the purposes of this article, I’m considering BT Mining, their jointly-owned subsidiary with the notorious fishing company Talleys, as part of Bathurst – despite the fact that Bathurst and Talleys are fighting in the courts.)

Having a compliant Government, and a Prime Minister who mouths all the mining industry’s talking points like the world’s most complacent sock puppet, has certainly helped Bathurst’s prospects and lessened the continuing grumbling from their investors about inadequate dividends.

The Government has included two planned Bathurst mining projects, Buller Plateaux and North Rotowaro, in the list of projects in the Fast-Track Approvals Act.

But all is not rosy in the garden. The problem for Bathurst is that, despite their and the Government’s worst efforts, Aotearoa is slowly continuing to move away from the use of thermal coal – that is, coal burned to provide heat for industrial processes and energy generation. For many years, the three biggest domestic users of coal have been Genesis Energy’s power station at Huntly; Bluescope’s New Zealand Steel plant at Glenbrook; and Fonterra’s many coal-fueled milk powder factories. But in recent years:

• Genesis has been experimenting with replacing coal with wood pellets at Huntly, and has recently announced a partnership to produce the necessary biomass – though there has also been talk of extending coal use at Huntly, so that’s a mixed bag.
• Under continuing pressure from consumers, especially in Europe, Fonterra is sticking to its programme to end all coal use at its factories by 2037. It ended its coal use in the North Island in November 2024, and is now beginning to tackle its largest South Island milk powder factories.
• New Zealand Steel is planning to commission its new electric arc furnace in late 2025 , potentially reducing a million tonnes of emissions from burning coal per annum.

While there are many smaller users of thermal coal in Aotearoa, and none of them should be let off the hook to decarbonise, such cuts by the “big three” have left the future of thermal coal mining in Aotearoa looking increasingly short-term. The Government, despite adding metallurgical coal to its critical minerals list against the advice of the consultants who drew up the draft list, left thermal coal off the recently-released critical minerals list.

So Bathurst are betting big on mining metallurgical (coking) coal, which the Government did include on the critical minerals list. This coal would not be for domestic use – confusingly, New Zealand Steel uses thermal coal, not metallurgical coal, in its current Glenbrook furnaces. It’s all about export, and Bathurst is betting that it can navigate a world increasingly breaking into geographic power blocks and find markets for coking coal. That is very bad news for a large stretch of beautifully, ecologically valuable land on the West Coast – if they’re allowed to get away with it.

I expect you’ll be hearing plenty more about Bathurst’s Buller Plateaux projects this year, so in this article I’ll focus on their other projects. What else has Bathurst got going on?

• Bathurst’s second fast-track project is the North Rotowaro coal mine near Huntly. This is near to their existing Rotowaro mine, and if it goes ahead, would result in around a million tonnes of GHG emissions per year – so it is a substantial project that we’ll be working hard to oppose with the tools available to us.
• Separately, they have started on a three-year project, called Waipuna West, to extend the existing Rotowaro mine.
• Bathurst’s Maramarua mine, also in Waikato, has an existing M1 pit and an M2 pit that they’re going to be seeking resource consent for. There is a long and distinguished history of protest against coal mining at Maramarua.
• Their other North Island facility is their corporate head office at 1 Willeston St, Wellington, just a well-fed post-lunch stroll down from delivering personally-labelled lumps of coal to the Beehive.

Turning to Te Waipounamu, besides its big investment in the Buller Plateau, Bathurst has the Takitimu mine in Southland. Takitimu is due to close in the 2027 fiscal year, and we are currently trying to establish whether, in the light of the decline in South Island thermal coal use, Bathurst is planning to go ahead with the possible nearby New Brighton mine, which Forest and Bird has taken legal action against.

Bathurst has more corporate offices in Christchurch, a large coal yard in Washdyke, Timaru which appears from aerial photos to be exposed to the open air.

The Bathurst commercial “ecosystem” is, to put it mildly, a target-rich environment for both lawyers and activists – and just in case you thought Bathurst didn’t have enough appetite for risk, they are also trying to develop two large coal mines in that latest of geopolitical hotspots, Canada.

Right now, Bathurst Resources is a bit like Gollum. They can see the ring. They wants it, precious, yes they does. But it isn’t quite in their grasp yet. It would be such a pity if a crew of Eowyns and Frodos and Aragorns were to rise up, stand against them, and send them falling into the Mount Doom of failed companies and melted corporate dreams.

– Tim Jones

The post Bathurst Resources: Poised Above The Precipice appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

We at CANA are concerned that the official panel, currently reclassifying the DOC stewardship land on the West Coast, is recommending too low a level of protection (“Conservation Park”) for this magical landscape, some of which has already been lost to opencast coal mining.

NB: The Minerals Council has stated that a “Conservation Park” classification will still allow mining!

More information is available on the petition site – please sign – and share with your friends.

We have until 26 July to make our final submissions.

The post Help Save the Denniston Plateau! appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

The post “Fuelling Dissension” appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

To begin, here is an overview of local issues from Massey University, including the New Zealand index of Social Deprivation.

It should come as no surprise that the Buller coal-mining region is one of the most deprived in the country.

For the big picture, here is a seminal paper from the US on the overall cost to communities of mining, transporting, and burning coal.

NB: Coal prices have collapsed since this paper was published in 2011.  If the costs outweighed the benefits then, the balance must be far worse today.

Here are some useful links from OraTaiao, the New Zealand Climate and Health Council:

Fossil fuels, Climate Change and Health;

The 2017 Royal Society report Human Health Impacts of Climate Change for NZ has a section on outdoor air quality;

More recently, here is a 2019 Lancet report on climate change and health and a 2019 review of air pollution and health from the American College of Chest Physicians.

For those who want to go deeper, there is a large body of relevant scientific evidence from the Appalachian coalfields in the US, where coal is mined by much the same methods, and in similar terrain, as in the Buller.

The following is a list of publications from one researcher, Dr. Michael Hendryx, Professor of Public Health at Indiana University. The titles show the many ways by which coal mining poisons communities and blights children’s lives.

• Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal.
• Unintended consequences of the Clean Air Act: Mortality rates in Appalachian mining communities.
• An examination of the effects of mountaintop removal coal mining on respiratory symptoms and COPD using propensity scores.
• Mortality in Appalachian coal-mining regions: The value of statistical life lost.
• Mortality from heart, respiratory and kidney disease in coal mining areas of Appalachia.
• Increased risk of depression linked to mountaintop coal mining.
• Appalachian mountaintop mining particulate matter induces neoplastic transformation of human bronchial epithethial cells and promotes tumor formation.
• Improving the environmental quality component of the county health rankings model.
• Self-reported cancer rates in two rural areas of West Virginia with and without mountaintop mining.
• Health-related quality of life among Central Appalachian residents in mountaintop mining counties.
• Association between mountaintop mining and birth defects among live births in Central Appalachia.
• Atmospheric particulate matter size distribution and concentration in West Virginia coal mining and non-mining areas.
• Childhood asthma in rural-urban areas.
• Chronic cardiovascular disease mortality in mountaintop mining areas of Central Appalachian states.
• Atmospheric particulate matter in proximity to mountaintop coal mines: Sources and potential environmental and human impacts.
• Personal and family health in rural areas of Kentucky with and without mountaintop coal mining.
• Air pollution particulate matter collected from an Appalachian mountaintop mining site induces cardiovascular dysfunction.
• Adult tooth loss for residents of US coal mining and Appalachian counties.
• A comparative analysis of health-related quality of life for US counties with and without coal mining.
• A geographical information system-based analysis of cancer mortality and population exposure to coal mining activities in West Virginia, USA.
• Higher coronary heart disease and heart attack morbidity in Appalachian coal mining regions.
• Ecological integrity of streams related to human cancer mortality rates.
• Lung cancer mortality is elevated in coal-mining areas of Appalachia.
• Relations between health indicators and residential proximity to coal mining in West Virginia.
• Hospitalization patterns associated with Appalachian coal mining.
• Residence in coal-mining areas and low-birth-weight outcomes.
• Mortality rates in Appalachian coal mining counties: 24 years behind the nation.
• Cancer mortality rates in Appalachian mountaintop coal mining areas.
• The public health impacts of surface coal mining.
• Increased risk of depression for people living in coal mining areas of central Appalachia.
• Atmospheric particulate matter in proximity to mountaintop coal mines: sources and potential environmental human health impacts.
• The long-term economic benefits of wind versus mountaintop removal coal on Coal River Mountain, West Virginia.
• Mountaintop mining consequences.
• Learning outcomes among students in relation to West Virginia coal mining: An environmental riskscape approach.
• Association between residence near surface coal mining and blood inflammation.
• Health disparities and environmental competence: A study of Appalachian coal mining.

The post Coal, Air Quality, Health and Deprivation appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Thank you to everyone who signed the petition asking Ministers Sage and Woods to say “no” to granting coal miners access to despoil DoC land in their rapacious greed for coal.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to CANA’s appeal for funds to help us assist Forest and Bird in their Environment Court appeal against the decision to grant resource consent for Te Kuha by providing an expert economic witness to argue against the mine on economic grounds.

Te Kuha Appeal Update

We have raised well over $4000 from this appeal, but we need plenty more. If you can contribute to help us pay the costs of our expert witness, please do so here:

Coal Action Network Aotearoa
(Kiwibank) 38 9011 0484435 00

It’s 2018; we shouldn’t need to be still doing this! But we will, for as long as it takes. Every dollar donated is a dollar spent at the coal face of ending fossil fuel extraction in Aotearoa. With your help we will stop this mine.

Te Kuha Petition Presentation

The petition to Ministers Wood and Sage was presented to MPs Kiritapu Allan (Labour) and Gareth Hughes (Greens) by representatives from 350 Aotearoa and CANA, together with Forest and Bird, on Tuesday 20 March. You can watch 350 Aotearoa’s stream of the presentation here:

https://twitter.com/350nz/status/975880267410718720

Now the ball is in the Government’s court.

We’ve heard a lot of great talk from the Prime Minister and her Cabinet about their determination to act on climate change. The climate doesn’t respond to words – it responds to actions. Te Kuha provides an early test of whether this Government is prepared to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The post Te Kuha Update: Petition Presented, Appeal Continues! appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

It’s astonishing and appalling that a Government that says all the right words about the need for action on climate change may nevertheless let a new coal mine go ahead on the West Coast, when it could stop that mine with the stroke of a pen.

We’re calling on the responsible Ministers, Labour’s Megan Woods and the Greens’ Eugenie Sage, to do the right thing for our country, our climate and our planet and say “No!” to this project.  Sign our petition by Sunday to tell these two Ministers – no to a Te Kuha mine, no to new coal!

Background

The Buller District Council has just granted resource consent for Te Kuha mine, a 109 hectare opencast coal mine on the West Coast, but the government has yet to decide whether to allow the miners to take the top off the mountain – the 12 hectares that are part of the Mt Rochfort Conservation Park.

The Department of Conservation has stated that this area is “recognised as nationally and internationally unique and for having very high ecological and conservation value.” It contains Great Spotted Kiwi and other rare and endangered species and plants.

At a time when our government is claiming that climate change is our generation’s “nuclear-free moment,”  and has recently said that there will be no new coal mines on conservation land, it must say no to this mountaintop removal.  Without access to this precious DOC land, the mine is unlikely to go ahead.

Hon Dr Megan Woods (Minister of Energy and Resources) and Hon Eugenie Sage (Minister of Conservation), have the power to stop this mine.

Call on Megan Woods and Eugenie Sage to live up to their words, and pull the plug on this dirty and short-sighted project. Sign the petition here:

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-te-kuha-coal-mine

The post Last Chance To Sign! Petition to Save Te Kuha From Coal Mining Closes This Sunday, 18 March! appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

The Buller District Council has given the green light for the Te Kuha mine – a 109ha mine in the West Coast Water Conservation area  above Westport.

The top 12ha of the mine – the top of the mountain – is in the Department of Conservation’s Mt Rochfort Conservation Area and, in DOC’s own words:  is “recognised as nationally and internationally unique and for having very high ecological and conservation value.”

“Earlier this month Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage signalled there would be no new mines on conservation land,” said Rosemary Penwarden of CANA.

“This is now her test: will she allow a coal miner to take the top off a mountain, in an area that contains the endangered Great Spotted Kiwi?  Or will she all coal mining to go ahead, wiping out crucial biodiversity for coal that, ultimately, will end up in the atmosphere causing climate change?”

All indications are that the best coal for the proposed mine is at the top of the mountain.  The mining scar would be able to be seen from downtown Westport (see image from DOC below), and from the road through the Buller gorge – a spectacular tourist attraction.

The Department of Conservation’s role in the Buller District Council hearing was one of “neutrality” – however, one of its officers did spell out the destruction that would be caused to biodiversity.   Hearings for the DOC access consent were held nearly two years ago, and the Government had still not made a decision.

“All eyes are now on Ms Sage to back her words with real action and start bringing the Department of Conservation’s real role back,” said Ms Penwarden.

The post Press release: Te Kuha is first conservation test of new Government – Coal Action Network Aotearoa appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

‘Neoliberalism’ is one of those terms rarely used in a complimentary sense. In fact being described as a ‘neoliberalist’ tends to imply that your moral standing is only marginally above that of someone who steals from widows and orphans. Neoliberalism took a chokehold on New Zealand economic policy back in the 1980s and 90s, but does the emperor really have any clothes?

A central tenet of neoliberal dogma is that business should be allowed to do its own thing while the government stays out of the way. If markets don’t exist in such areas as land, water, or environmental pollution, then they should be created. Controls on working conditions and foreign investments should be relaxed. State assets should be sold off – privatisation and private property rights rule.

The 1991 Resource Management Act (RMA) attempted to set out how we should manage our environment in a sustainable way when making decisions about the use of resources. Decision-making processes, however, may give undue weight to claims that economic gains will compensate for any environmental damage caused.

In order for the best possible decisions to be made, it’s vital that councils and courts should have access to the best possible information. This doesn’t always happen. When Mokau South Resources (MSR) applied for consents to mine the Panirau Plateau, the supporting information was best described as scanty. For example, MSR’s consultant ecologist carried out a one-day field study but didn’t actually visit the proposed mine site. To its credit, the Waikato Regional Council didn’t let MSR get away with its shoddy application, which Tim Jones of CANA had compared unfavourably to that which might be produced by monkeys under zero-hours contracts with bananas banned from the workplace.

Stevenson Mining’s application to develop an opencast coal mine at Te Kuha on the West Coast has, on the other hand, been accompanied by pages and pages of information. Reports prepared by consultants for Stevenson, for the councils, for the Department of Conservation and for environmental NGOs all came to the same conclusion: Te Kuha has extremely high conservation and landscape values which will be irreversibly damaged if mining goes ahead.

The crux of the applicant’s case must be that the benefits resulting from mining Te Kuha would outweigh the environmental destruction. So what is the economic rationale of the proposal? Whereas the scientific aspects of the applicant’s case are backed up with actual evidence, we are asked to accept the economic claims on trust. The Council Planning Officers’ report simply states, “We acknowledge that the proposal will have clear positive economic benefits with respect to providing for employment and wider economic benefits to the district and region.” Well, that’s nice.

DOC and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) struck up a cosy arrangement in which they presented a joint submission on Te Kuha. MBIE consultants assessed the Net Present Value (NPV) of the project as $34–36m, but there is no reference to the identity of these consultants or to the evidence on which their opinions are based.

For those of us who don’t have a background in economics it’s easy to feel threatened by the unfamiliar language. (NPV? Go google.) But in order to challenge the promises of untold jobs and wealth, you often don’t need any specialist knowledge at all.

Let’s take a look at just a few of Stevenson’s claims:

“It can be assumed that the costs and benefits have been responsibly and properly analysed and that from the viewpoint of those with money at risk, the expected financial benefits exceed the expected costs.”
Who carried out this analysis? What were their findings based on? Has anyone told them about Mt Davy, Spring Creek, Escarpment, Roa – just some of the West Coast mines which have spectacularly failed to achieve the financial benefits claimed by their owners?

“Preliminary tests indicate that there could be three products from Te Kuha, including a premium one that will attract higher prices.”
What proportion of the coal will be of this grade? What will the price differential be?

“Te Kuha coal will be used in specialist applications such as for making carbon fibre, activated carbon and pharmaceuticals.”
Which of these processes are currently carried out in New Zealand? What discussions have been held with overseas manufacturers who might buy Te Kuha coal? Who are the competitors in this market?

“Te Kuha will generate 58 new mining jobs.”
Based on what evidence? How many jobs will be for current West Coast residents as opposed to transients?

“The value of coal produced will average $57m a year.”
What evidence does the company have that the recent wild swings in the price of coking coal will stabilise at a profitable level? What is this likely to be?

And one other question: If more than a century and a half of coal mining has failed to bring sustained prosperity to the West Coast, what is the factual basis for claiming that opening yet another coal mine will solve the area’s problems?

Some hard choices have to be made about our use of natural resources. But decision-makers can be hoodwinked into believing that they should accept without question any proposal that includes the words ‘jobs’, ‘profit’ or ‘tax revenue’. It’s time to insist that the same scrutiny is given to economic arguments as to environmental ones. It’s time to rip away the cloak of ‘commercial sensitivity’ that can be allowed to shield the emperor’s nakedness. And it’s time to listen when voices cry out, “But he has nothing on at all!”

The post The emperor’s new economics: how neoliberalism lets coal miners get away with making wild, unsupported claims about economic benefits appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

You may have recently seen TVNZ’s The Sunday Programme’s “Back to Black” story on Te Kuha, a new coal mine proposal on the West Coast.   If you haven’t, it’s worth a look.

CANA has been following the progress of this mine for quite some time. We have made submissions on various aspects: including one about a year ago on the request for access to mine on the DOC conservation estate – Mt Rochfort. The mine would take off the top of this mountain, in the DOC estate, which contains rare bird and plant species – like the Great Spotted Kiwi (recently added to DOC’s priority list of threatened species).

The Buller District Council has now opened the main mine application for submissions, which are due to close on Thursday 18 May.

We have only two days to get as many submissions against this as possible. Please go to the Forest & Bird website and have your say.

 The idea of this mine going ahead, wrecking this beautiful landscape, digging up coal only for it to end up in the sky, is nuts. Especially nuts if you look at what happened on the Denniston Plateau, where the miners finally got consent (after a long fight that many of you were involved in), only for the coal price to plummet. There’s only one worker left at this mine now – but they dug up a lot of the beautiful landscape anyway. They can’t afford to take it out of the ground.

The same thing could happen with Te Kuha. You’d be able to see the scar from this mine from downtown Westport, a thriving tourist hub and, on the other side of the mountain, from the Buller Gorge road – arguably one of the most beautiful drives in the country.

For so many reasons: climate, biodiversity, tourism, this mine has to be stopped.

Please make a submission now, and share it with all your friends.

Nga mihi

The CANA team

The post Submit by Thursday Against the Proposed Te Kuha Coalmine appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.