RECEIVE CAMPAIGN UPDATESKicking and Screaming
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey expressed her delight with today’s announcement that ACTPLA will require a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) of ActewAGL’s gas fired power plant and data centre proposal.
“In May when the community was confronted by the original larger project, I called for the ACT Government to commit to a full EIS but it refused” Dr Foskey said today.
“Three months have gone by. The proposal has been downscaled and revamped, and now an EIS has been called for.”
“I’d like to congratulate ACTPLA and the Minister on taking the right steps eventually. But Government Ministers could have taken a more proactive approach on this front and committed to an EIS at a much earlier stage, since there were clearly significant environmental concerns”
“While the EIS has been called for at the allotted time in the established DA process, it was obvious it was needed back in May. The Planning Minister could have called for it then, thus reducing the potential for delay while the EIS was prepared.”
“I think ActewAGL will be distressed that the EIS is only being triggered now since the LAST thing they wanted was a delay. Perhaps in future it would serve them better to pay attention to the Greens rather than the Government when environmental impact needs to be assessed”
“I congratulate the local residents of Macarthur and Fadden for their work on raising issues of concern to them and the wider ACT community, and appreciate that Health Minister Katy Gallagher took her health portfolio seriously and showed leadership in Government.”
“All major projects need to be properly assessed in terms of health, environmental and social impact; and it is never adequate where that assessment is done by the project’s proponent,” Dr Foskey said.
