Rodney gas-fired power project may go ahead

The Court of Appeal says a controversial gas-fired power plant north of Auckland, on the edge of the Kaipara Harbour at Rodney, may yet go ahead.

"We have been told that the application remains alive and is being processed," the court said yesterday in a judgment overturning a High Court ruling that climate change and greenhouse gas emissions could be a consideration in consents under the Resource Management Act.

"In considering the application by Genesis Power for a discharge permit into the air of greenhouse gases associated with the proposed Rodney power station, the Auckland Regional Council must not have regard to the effects of that discharge on climate change," the appeal court ruled.

Energy Minister David Parker claimed in October that state-owned generators - including Genesis - have been told not to proceed with any plans to add thermal power generators to their baseload ability.

And after Prime Minister Helen Clark said she wanted the sector to focus on renewable energy unless new coal and gas fired stations were needed to ensure security of supply, Mr Parker said the strategy spelt the end of the road for the Rodney plant.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen also questioned how Genesis' gas-fired plant at Rodney would get the go-ahead under the new energy strategy "unless there was an absolutely clear offset against higher emitting thermal capacity elsewhere".

The appeal court said environmental lobby Greenpeace "points to the conflict between unequivocal assertions made by cabinet ministers to the effect that the Rodney project is off, and Genesis Power's position that it is not necessarily off".

It said that the Government's policy - and legislation introduced last week for a 10-year ban on new fossil-fuel power stations - does "not exclude the reasonable possibility that the application will proceed".

The court, Justices Bruce Robertson and Robert Chambers with Justice William Young presiding, noted the "opaque nature of the material supplied by Genesis Power" left it to assume no decision had been made on canning the project.

They noted eventual construction of the power station might be more 10 years away, and so not in conflict with government policy, or it could be built sooner as a peak-load generator, and still not conflict with the Government's ban on new fossil-fuel generation.

Greenpeace won the original High Court ruling that climate change could be considered in RMA consents for such projects.

The High Court said that regional councils considering resource consents for Mighty River Power's plans to convert the Marsden B power station in Northland to run on coal could take climate change into account. Since the ruling in October last year, Mighty River Power has abandoned its plans for the conversion.

But Genesis began legal moves in May to reverse the High Court decision, saying such a declaration would help it gain resource consents for its planned gas-fired Rodney generators.

Genesis also runs Huntly power station, one of the nation's biggest sources of greenhouse gases from an industrial site.

Greenpeace climate campaigner Susannah Bailey said the appeal court ruling has removed a crucial legal control on polluters' greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand.

"The court action undertaken by a state owned enterprise (SOE) - whose shareholders are government ministers - used public money to remove the only existing legal protection for the climate in New Zealand and to have the effects of the greenhouse gases it discharges deemed irrelevant under the law," she said.

"It's extremely embarrassing for a Government trying to push its green credentials and "carbon neutral" aspirations, both here and abroad."

The Government's proposed moratorium on new fossil fuel generation was only for 10 years and had loopholes which could allow new polluting thermal plants to continue to be built.

"Right now, it seems like business as usual," said Ms Bailey.

"The Court of Appeal ruling has created a legal vacuum which could allow millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases to be emitted".

She called on the Government to support the Green Party's bill to amend the RMA, and implement a national policy statement to promote renewable energy and a shift away from fossil fuels.

"Greenpeace is currently reviewing whether to appeal the ruling at the Supreme Court," said Ms Bailey. "We will continue to fight to ensure there are no legal loopholes in terms of climate protection."

- NZPA