Coal industry urges re-elected Morrison government to build new coal plants

The coal industry has begun lobbying the re-elected Morrison government to support hardline positions, including building new coal-fired power stations and weakening approvals processes for new mines.

Australia’s coal industry is lobbying the Coalition to
build new coal-fired power stations and weaken
approvals processes for new mines.

The Coal Council of Australia released a statement on Sunday welcoming the election result, praising the Coalition for supporting coal, and calling on Labor to reverse many of its climate-focused policies towards the fossil fuel.

“While elections are about an array of issues, it is important to note in coal-related electorates in both NSW and Queensland, Labor members and candidates recorded strong swings against them,” the CCA chief executive, Greg Evans, said.

In the three electorates home to most of Australia’s large coalmines – Dawson and Capricornia in Queensland and Hunter in NSW – voters delivered double-digit swings to the government.

Read the story from The Guardian by Ben Smee - “Coal industry urges re-elected Morrison government to build new coal plants.”

EPA’s ‘secret science’ proposal being used by Big Oil to undermine clean water rules

Internal emails reveal two major fossil fuel trade groups are lobbying to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from updating a decades-old list of toxic chemicals found in petroleum wastewater — and they’re using the Trump administration’s controversial “secret science” proposal to make their case. 

An Exxon gas refinery in Baytown, Texas.

The EPA currently monitors for 16 types of chemicals in wastewater, or effluent, released by petroleum refineries under the Clean Water Act. However, in the more than 40 years since the list was developed, scientific understanding around the number of chemicals and their toxicity levels has grown. As a result, the EPA is in the early stages of determining whether the priority list of chemicals needs to be updated.

But according to emails released to the Sierra Club and reviewed by ThinkProgress, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) are lobbying to limit the scope of the EPA’s study.

Read the story from ThinkProgress by Kyla Mandel - “EPA’s ‘secret science’ proposal being used by Big Oil to undermine clean water rules.”

Top oil firms spending millions lobbying to block climate change policies, says report

The largest five stock market listed oil and gas companies spend nearly $200m (£153m) a year lobbying to delay, control or block policies to tackle climate change, according to a new report.

ExxonMobil leads the oil firms in spending on branding
campaigns suggesting they support action against climate change.

Chevron, BP and ExxonMobil were the main companies leading the field in direct lobbying to push against a climate policy to tackle global warming, the report said.

Read the story from The Guardian by Sandra Laville - “Top oil firms spending millions lobbying to block climate change policies, says report.”

Inquiry Targeting Green Groups Accidentally Exposes $145 Million Mining Tax Dodge

Greg Hunt - parliamentary inquiry mining
industry tax lobbying loophole.

The Australia Institute has revealed that the mining industry enjoys a bigger tax break on its lobbying activities than the environmental organisations forced under the microscope of a parliamentary inquiry.

Lobbying organisations like the New South Wales Minerals Council kicked up a stink earlier this year, complaining that environmental groups have been engaging in ‘political’ lobbying at the same time as enjoying a tax-deductible status on donations.

The Chief Executive Officer of the NSW mining lobby, Stephen Galilee, argues “the fact that these groups can ask the public for money, promoting donations as being ‘tax deductible’ is an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars”.

“These protest organisations should not receive special tax treatment,” Galilee said in February.

By March, the Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, had established a lower house inquiry into the tax-free status of donations made to green groups listed on the Register of Environmental Organisations.

Read the New Matilda story - “Inquiry Targeting Green Groups Accidentally Exposes $145 Million Mining Tax Dodge.”