Fifty-year extension for one of Australia’s biggest CO2 emitters likely after WA ditches emissions-reduction rules - eviltoast

The Western Australian Labor government appears all but certain to give one of Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters the green light to operate until 2070 after it announced it would abolish state emissions-reduction requirements.

The WA Environment Protection Authority recommended in 2022 that the state approve a 50-year extension for the plant, which is run by the oil and gas company Woodside, as long as it progressively reduced its operating emissions. It could do that by either making cuts onsite or paying for carbon offsets.

But the WA government last month announced it would change rules so that the EPA would no longer regulate emissions from development proposals that released significant climate pollution.