Greenpeace / Nick Tapp
Greenpeace is making a legal move to halt the deep-sea oil drilling off the Raglan coast. The ultra deep-sea drilling began overnight. Greenpeace has now filed papers in the High Court in Wellington for a judicial review of the regulating agencies performance in permitting the Texan oil company Anadarko to drill 150 kilometres off the Waikato coast.
Having protested at the location of Anadarko’s deep sea oil drilling 110 nautical miles from Raglan since Saturday 16 November, the Oil Free Seas Flotilla is returning to shore.
“We have proudly represented the views of thousands of New Zealander’s out here at sea who want a future based on clean energy not risky deep-sea drilling” said Tim Foreman, skipper of the SV Friendship.
“By bearing witness to the first of Anadarko’s deep sea drills off our coast we have brought this issue into the homes of New Zealanders over the last two weeks.”
Spokesperson for the Oil Free Seas Flotilla, Anna Horne said “They have highlighted what the Government wanted to keep out of sight and out of mind, the risks that are been taken with our oceans, economy and way of life for the benefit of foreign oil drillers.”
“Last Saturday while we protested Anadarko at sea, thousands of people took to the nations shores in defence of our coastlines. Together we sent the message loud and clear that deep-sea drilling is not our future, and we will continue to send that message from shore. “
Skipper Tim Foreman said “We want to say a huge thank you to everyone for your support. We are very proud to have set sail in defence of our oceans and coastlines.
“Anadarko has broken their own safety rules by drilling with a protest vessel inside the 500 meter exclusion zone. The government’s Anadarko amendment (the 500 meter protest ban) has been made a mockery of as the SV Vega has remained in that zone non-stop over the last week.
“The Flotilla arrived together at this point in the ocean 10 days ago and we depart together today.
“We repeat our demand that Anadarko cease their deep-sea drilling and return to Texas. You are not welcome here. The world needs clean energy not new supplies of extreme oil that drive climate change.”
The Greenpeace legal action is targeting the Environmental Protection Authority and Maritime New Zealand, saying the EPA made “an error in law” by failing to examine and approve key oil spill management documents signed off by MNZ, which has responsibility for marine oil spill clean-up.
Anadarko spudded in an exploration well in the Romney prospect, in 1500 metres of water, to drill 3,100 metres, hoping to find a very large oil and gas field. It is the first well ever drilled in the Deepwater Taranaki licence area (PEP38451) and has provoked widespread public protest and concern.
Greenpeace says it has legal advice the EPA made an ‘error in law’ by allowing Anadarko to drill without looking at several key documents, including reports on oil spill modelling and emergency plans to deal with an oil spill, according to the legal papers.
“If Greenpeace’s challenge is successful, it could bring a halt to Anadarko’s drilling plans, as they should not have been given permission to drill because the requirements of the law were not met,” said Greenpeace New Zealand’s chief policy adviser Nathan Argent.
Labour’s Environment spokesperson Moana Mackey says that Greenpeace’s announcement that it intends to challenge the Environmental Protection Authority’s (EPA) decision to allow Anadarko to carry out deep-sea drilling off the Raglan coast is the direct result of poor Government management and shoddy law-making.
“The Exclusive Economic Zone law and associated regulations are deliberately permissive and subsequent amendments to the regulatory framework have been rushed and not well thought out.
“The process has been a shambles from start to finish and has done nothing to allay genuine public concerns that the environmental risks are being appropriately assessed and managed.
“The claims being made by environmental NGOs which form the basis of this court case, that the EPA has not viewed key documents submitted by Anadarko as required under the EEZ Act, are deeply concerning. Regulators must act within the law and it helps no one when they fail to do so.
“Rushing to put a regulatory framework in place is not good practice if the regulator, in this case the EPA, does not have its head around the detail of that framework.
“The Government is desperate to expedite deep-sea oil and gas exploration because they have no Plan B for regional economic development. However they should slow down until they can reassure communities that the consenting regime is robust, the regulator up to speed, and the emergency response capability adequate.”
Coalition Government leader, Mr Key said today the independent agency made its own decisions, “but the advice that we have received is that they are confident that they have followed the right legal procedures and they’re confident that they’ve done everything that is required of them”.