Victoria's Planning Minister today took over from councils responsibility for approving all energy projects greater than 1MW, including gas, pumped-hydro and waste-to-energy developments.
As the pandemic threat subsides, the Victorian government is under pressure to release statutory emissions targets and announce new coal power station licence conditions.
The Victorian Supreme Court has made an important ruling on the circumstances in which companies need to obtain planning permits for works they undertake in response to EPA clean-up notices.
A tribunal has set aside a wind farm permit after finding that the developer failed to get the consent of the owners of buildings including a nearby converted dairy and a small cabin.
In a big win for taxpayers, a court has rejected efforts by liquidators to disown responsibility for a site containing large stockpiles of abandoned industrial waste.
Victoria will run a reverse auction to buy the off-take from at least 600MW of new renewable energy capacity, and will investigate whether private sector energy users are interested in being co-buyers.
Mining and quarrying companies are providing financial assurances that are set too low, and monitoring of their rehabilitation performance is grossly inadequate, Victoria's Auditor-General has found.
Transurban must fight legal battles on two fronts over PFAS contamination on Victoria's West Gate Tunnel project, after failing to secure a Supreme Court injunction that would have put on ice arbitration of its dispute with contractor CPB.