The Decision to Extend Coal Mining at HVO
I personally have welcomed the decision, by the Independent Planning Commission (IPC), to allow coal mining on Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) site to continue into the 2040’s. My general support for this mine has not been appreciated by all and I recently had some angry protestors in my office expressing their views. What a wonderful open democracy we live in.
Coal is very much in demand across the world. We have some of the best quality coal here in the Hunter and some of our global trading partners have specifically built their coal fired power stations to run using our Hunter coal.
The quality of our Hunter coal allows offshore coal fired power stations to burn less coal to meet their needs which in turn allows them to generate less emissions while still providing electricity to their people.
Very importantly, as I have written in this column many times in the past, decisions to build coal fired power stations in other countries is a decision for those Governments and those communities. Here in NSW, we cannot control any of those decisions. Those same countries are also making decisions about building nuclear power plants, pumped hydro power, solar and wind power, not to forget geo-thermal power supplies as well. Again, we here in NSW cannot control the decisions making of foreign nations.
So the question is really whether or not we agree to sell Hunter coal to these overseas customers – all of whom are incredibly important trading partners for other products like lobster, wine, tuna, dairy, grain, cotton, beef, etc.
One train of thought is that we keep selling our high quality coal so that while ever these countries choose to burn coal the impact of emissions will be as low as possible. It is after all a sure thing that they are not going to let the lights go out for their people and industry.
The opposite point of view is that we should stop selling Hunter coal to these foreign customers and “force” them to close their power stations and shift to renewables, or other energy sources, more quickly. This line of thinking presumes that we have that enormous amount of control over other nations.
This line of thinking also fails to accept a far more likely outcome – that these offshore coal fired power stations will instead use a source of dirtier and less efficient coal that creates even more emissions and is far worse for the environment than Hunter coal. These countries are, after all, definitely going to keep the lights on for their people.
So, my absolute preference is to keep local mine workers employed, keep our trade relations strong and ensure that coal fired power stations do the least amount of damage to the environment. My firm view is that we here in NSW cannot dictate terms to foreign Governments that are tasked with looking after their own people.
For those that don’t agree with my view, I can only assume that they are willing to see our local mine workers without work, our trading partners taking a second guess at their relationship with Australian industry, and the burning of a dirtier coal product that is far worse for the environment. They also hold a view that foreign Governments will walk away from their recently built coal fired power stations and put their communities into darkness.
As always, these things are never simple. It is not a case of shutting coal down today. Nor is it a case of coal ripping out of the ground forever. And it is absolutely not a matter for the NSW Government to try to dictate to other foreign Governments.
And What About Mount Pleasant Coal Mine?
MACH Energy, the owner of Mount Pleasant coal mine, went through the NSW Planning process for a number of years leading up to a 2022 decision about the future of that mine. In 2022 the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) gave approval for Mount Pleasant to increase and extend its operations, out until 2048.
As a result of that decision, Mount Pleasant began to increase the amount of coal that they were producing and increase the size of their workforce to get this larger amount of work done. These actions were in keeping with the 2022 decision that the IPC had made.
Fast forward to 2026, and in recent weeks the High Court has ruled that the decision made by the IPC back in 2022 is not valid. This has left Mount Pleasant in a situation where they are delivering more coal, with a larger workforce, only to be told now that they don’t have the approval that had been granted to them back in 2022.
The NSW Government will address this unique situation by passing a new law that allows Mount Pleasant to continue to function as though the 2022 decision were still in place (i.e. larger volumes of coal and a larger workforce) until Mount Pleasant get the chance to go back through the planning process to once again seek approval.
This is a commonsense approach for the NSW Government to take and saves the workforce from the tug-of-war between planning approvals granted by one body and decisions made in a Court some 4 years later.