26 November 2013

Delay drilling until Judicial Review decided

Anadarko should cease drilling until the legal issues around their permission to drill are decided, the Green Party said today.

Greenpeace today filed papers asking for a Judicial Review of the process the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) followed when it gave Anadarko permission to drill off the coast of Raglan.

“It’s hard to imagine that the EPA fulfilled its obligation to determine that Anadarko’s application was complete, given it only saw summaries of Anadarko’s oil spill modelling and emergency response plan,” said Green Party energy spokesperson Gareth Hughes.

“Under the National Government’s weak transitional provisions, the EPA only has to consider the completeness of the environmental effects assessment, not consider the actual environmental impact. That they couldn’t even manage to do this is beyond belief.

“The process to give Anadarko the permission to drill has been an utter shambles and makes a mockery of the Government’s claims of ‘world class rules’ protecting the New Zealand environment.

“The National Government has spent too much energy promoting risky deep sea drilling and not enough time ensuring the beaches we love are protected.

“John Key isn’t telling New Zealanders about the elevated risk of ultra-deep water drilling. If we look at the Gulf of Mexico, 1 in 272 shallow water wells has had a spill, whereas that number rises to 1 in 19 wells for ultra-deep water wells.

“The National Government is crossing its fingers and hoping that there isn’t a spill because it knows Maritime New Zealand doesn’t have the equipment and supplies to deal with a major spill, and that help is far away.

“New Zealand’s future is in clean energy not risky deep sea oil exploration,” said Mr Hughes.

ENDS

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