The environmental regulator of Western Australia returns on the need for carbon offsetting

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The Western Australia Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday that it would withdraw directives issued last week demanding big projects to offset their carbon emissions to curb global warming.

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) of the state had said last week that major new projects, including facilities for fertilizers and power plants, as well as gas export sites Liquefied natural gas (LNG) would be required to buy credits to offset their emissions and pbad the process of evaluating the authority. .

The rules would have applied to projects generating more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. The guidelines were not binding, but the EPA's badessments are taken into account by the state government when approving major projects.

The authority said Thursday, however, that it would consult more with industry and stakeholders to ensure that its guidelines are lawful and could be followed in practice.

"It is clear from our consultations that the industry is uncertain about the technicalities and practical implementation of the guidelines, particularly with regard to offsets," the statement said.

"The EPA is withdrawing the revised application guidelines, until consultations with industry and stakeholders are more comprehensive," he said.

The guidelines were to apply to all new proposals and changes, including those under evaluation, the EPA had stated.

"We welcome EPA's decision to withdraw its directive and consult it, but we regret the instability of the past week," said Peter Coleman, CEO of Woodside, in a statement released on Thursday. .

"Australia can not afford to shoot itself in the foot. Governments and regulators must act to give us confidence to invest … We will now go through an appropriate consultation process to make the investment decisions we need to make, "he said.

Western Australia is the largest LNG producer in the country with five major plants: North West Shelf and Pluto LNG, both managed by Woodside Petroleum, Gorgon Mills and Wheatstone from Chevron Corp. and the Royal Dutch Shell Prelude floating platform.

Expansion plans for Chevron's Gorgon sites and the multi-billion dollar Scarborough and Browse development projects would have been affected by the new guidelines if the government implemented them.