A community environment group has used a hearing before the Independent Planning Commission to argue a recent court ruling on coal mine emissions should apply to the proposed extension of the Hunter Valley Operations mine.
Wendy Wales, president of the Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group, known as DAMSHEG, told the Commission she was disappointed the group’s High Court case involving the Mount Pleasant mine had received little reference in the assessment of the HVO project. DAMSHEG successfully argued in the NSW Court of Appeals in July 2025 that the Commission had failed to properly consider the downstream, or “Scope 3”, greenhouse gas emissions of the Mount Pleasant mine’s expansion. That case has since gone to the High Court, where mining company MACH Energy is appealing the ruling.
Wales said DAMSHEG had written to the Department of Planning after the Court of Appeal decision, asking that the Commission be briefed on the ruling so downstream emissions would be factored into future assessments, including HVO’s. She said she believed this had not occurred.
“I am therefore profoundly disappointed to see minimal or no reference to the Denman decision in the online discussion between planning and the IPC of downstream and cumulative impacts of this HVO project,” she said.
In her submission, Wales pointed to the cost of recent extreme weather events in New South Wales, including drought and bushfire, referencing a 2021 academic study that put the combined economic cost of the 2017 to 2019 drought and bushfire period at 63 billion dollars. She said the state’s most disadvantaged communities were being disproportionately affected by climate-related disasters.
Wales also referenced the long-term costs that would be suffered for the sake of short-term profits.
“We will be dealing with climate change impact costs long after the short-term economic benefits have been spent and forgotten,” she said.
The Independent Planning Commission’s assessment of the Hunter Valley Operations extension is ongoing. Day three of hearings will take place online on Wednesday, with a report expected in September.
