Lawsuit filed over Oz fossil fuel project
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, conservation groups have filed a lawsuit against the EU Export-Import Bank for providing almost AUS$3bn to finance a fossil fuel facility in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.
The Export-Import Bank, an agency that funds international projects to promote US exports, provided the loan in May 2012 for the project which will be located in Queensland, northeast Australia.
The Australian Pacific LNG project will include drilling 10,000 coat-seam gas wells in interior Queensland, digging almost 300 miles of gas pipelines and constructing a massive natural gas processing facility and export terminal. In order to provide access to the new terminal, the project requires dredging the adjacent harbour and its seagrass beds.
Doug Norlen, policy director for US based organisation, Pacific Environment, said: “The Export-Import Bank should focus on renewable energy and stop worsening the world’s addiction to fossil fuels.”
The lawsuit asserts violations of the US endangered Species Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.
Sarah Uhlemann, a lawyer at the Center for Biological Diversity, added: “This liquefied natural gas project doesn’t meet US standards, and we shouldn’t be subsidising the world’s fossil fuel dependence or the destruction of a natural wonder like the Great Barrier Reef.”
The project will harm several species protected by the US Endangered Species Act including dugongs and green and loggerhead sea turtles, damage seagrass and other habitats, reduce water clarity and quality and increase the risk of ship strikes.
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