Environmental litigation - designed to unnecessarily hold up worthy coal mining projects in expensive and time-consuming court action as well as attract wanton publicity to so-called climate change warriors - is reducing the willingness of Australian companies to invest in resources projects.
This is exemplified by Australia Pacific Coal's long-awaited Dartbrook underground coal project in New South Wales' Hunter Valley.
The local horse breeders through the Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association have continued to lodge legal impediments in the Land and Environment Court to the project, despite the NSW Independent Planning Commission saying it is willing to extend the company's mining license from two to five years.
AusPac is a small company with limited funds. Legal representation does not come cheap and the coal assets sitting idle are chewing up capital with no return.
This may be HTBA's long term strategy - a war of attrition. Afterall many of the horse breeders are some of the richest people in Australia, made up of billionaires with a few Pitt Street farmers thrown in.
Not only do these unnecessary legal delays impact the shareholders and employees of these mining companies, they can also deprive local economies of regional employment and business opportunities during a time when COVID-19 pandemic restrictions are putting rural towns under pressure.
As bad as this is, Hogsback knows things are really going crazy when lawfare operators start targeting regulators and ministers.
Environment Victoria has launched a landmark legal action against the Victorian Environment Protection Authority and three energy companies for failing to limit pollution from coal-burning power stations.
The Supreme Court case will be the first test of Victoria's key climate legislation, the Climate Change Act 2017. It will also be the first to challenge the regulation of air pollution from Victoria's coal-burning power stations.
Environment Victoria CEO Jono La Nauze said the Victorian government passed nation-leading climate change legislation in 2017, however, Victoria's environment watchdog chose to ignore it when making a crucial decision about coal power station licences this year.
The EPA's decision on coal power station licences was finalised in March.
Environment Victoria's court case is a judicial review challenging the legality of the decision and includes the power station owners as defendants.
"We believe the EPA has failed to protect the health of the community and the environment so we're putting the matter before a judge to decide," La Nauze said.
"The EPA took more than 1200 days to review the licences of three coal power stations and then failed to take any action on the greenhouse gases they emit."
Environment Victoria is being represented by lawyers from Environmental Justice Australia.
Its principal lawyer Nick Witherow said this case added to a wave of climate litigation in Australia and around the world, including the recent successful case brought by bushfire survivors that found the NSW Environment Protection Authority failed in its duty to address climate change and had to take action to address greenhouse gas emissions.
Hogsback reckons that when lawfare rules the roost the lawyers will be able to count their money but the rest of us will see worthy coal projects gone for good.
