Browsing: <a href="/tag/wa">WA</a> <i class="grey">•</i> <a href="/tag/ccs">CCS</a>

The prospect of a carbon price has helped drive industry's involvement in Australia's first onshore CCS project, but risks remain until a global carbon price is in place, says a new progress report from the WA Government.

A tribunal has rejected an attempt by a CO2 Australia subsidiary to overturn a council's refusal of planning approval for a carbon sink forest plantation.

• WA EPA rejects Margaret River coal mine
  
• 'Voluntary NGER audit can reduce risk of mandatory audit'
  
• Tasmanian iron ore project to undergo EPBC Act scrutiny
  
• IEA backs coupling carbon price with renewables support

WA Environment Minister Donna Faragher is set to grant environmental approval for three coal-fired power plants that will jointly emit at least eight million tonnes of CO2 a year, over-ruling an appeals convenor recommendation that one of the projects be referred back to the EPA.

Concerned that vague 'CCS' conditions sets a dangerous precedent for other projects, WA's Conservation Council has appealed against EPA recommendations for a $2.5 billion chemical project, arguing the company must make interim emission cuts equivalent to what CCS could one day deliver.

Western Australia has four decades to cut annual greenhouse gas emissions from about 133 million tonnes to about 28 million tonnes, says a State EPA report that recommends carbon capture and storage conditions be attached to the environmental approval for a new $2.5 billion urea plant.

A parliamentary inquiry has criticised a WA bill that defines carbon dioxide as petroleum, warning it would have unintended consequences.

In the absence of emissions trading, any approval for Griffin Power to expand a coal-fired power plant should require a CCS-retrofit within five years of a ruling that the technology is proven and be conditional on achieving best-practice emissions intensity, the WA EPA has recommended.

• Government receives 52 Solar Flagships bids
  
• WA 'red-tape' inquiry calls for environmental approval changes
  
• Queensland suspends solar rebate scheme
  
• Victorian Liberals query carbon storage liability provision

• Governments take on Gorgon post-closure CCS liability
  
• Greens and independent MP join forces to push feed-in tariff
  
• Drop fixed decay rate for free permits, A3P says
  
• 'We need digitally aware infrastructure', urge Ai Group and IBM