The facts
The New South Wales Independent Planning Commission has approved an extension for the Hunter Valley Operations coal mine, allowing it to operate until 2045. The commission acknowledged that burning the coal would contribute to climate impacts but concluded that local employment, business activity, and royalties outweighed these effects. The mine's owners, Yancoal and Glencore, forecast that the exported coal could produce 809 million tonnes of carbon dioxide when burned, nearly double Australia's annual emissions. NSW Premier Chris Minns supported the decision, emphasizing its importance for jobs and state revenue, but did not mention the projected climate impact. Matt Kean, chair of the Climate Change Authority and former NSW treasurer, questioned why the commission did not weigh the economic damage from climate change, citing evidence that climate-related disasters could cost Australians at least $73 billion annually by 2060. Kean stated that climate change imposes economic costs through higher food prices, damaged infrastructure, and disrupted businesses, with these costs increasing as the planet warms. The extension still requires federal approval by the end of the year, and climate impacts are not grounds for blocking developments under national legislation. The Greens have urged the federal government to reject the extension.
Our take
Well, congratulations, New South Wales. Your Independent Planning Commission has officially graduated from being a panel of supposedly responsible adults to a gaggle of fucking arsonists haggling over the price of gasoline. They looked at a proposal to keep a coal mine shitting carbon until 2045, acknowledged that burning the stuff will absolutely turbocharge climate disasters, and then shrugged and said, 'Yeah, but think of the jobs and the royalties!' This is the bureaucratic equivalent of a surgeon saying, 'We know this tumor will kill you, but removing it would hurt the local scalpel-sharpening industry, so we're just gonna let it grow.' Absolute, world-class cunts.
The mine's owners, Yancoal and Glencore, helpfully provided the math: this extension could produce 809 million tonnes of CO2 when the coal is burned. That's nearly double Australia's entire annual emissions, a factoid the commission apparently filed under 'Who Gives a Shit.' Premier Chris Minns, a man whose vision apparently doesn't extend past the next royalty check, backed the decision, chirping about jobs and state revenue without a single fucking mention of the planetary-scale fire he's cheerleading for. What a prick. His priorities are so backwards he probably thinks a rising sea level is just good news for the maritime tourism sector.
Then there's Matt Kean, the Climate Change Authority chair and former state treasurer, who had the sheer fucking audacity to ask why the commission didn't weigh the economic damage from climate change. He cited evidence that climate disasters could cost Australia 73 billion dollars a year by 2060. Asking a coal-approving panel to consider the cost of climate change is like asking a wolverine to consider the upholstery before it shreds your car seats. It's a fundamentally stupid question because the entire purpose of these dickheads is to ignore that reality. The commission's logic is a masterpiece of shit-for-brains reasoning: 'Sure, this will make food more expensive, wreck infrastructure, and bankrupt businesses as the planet boils, but have you seen the spreadsheet for *this quarter*?'
The final, perfect cherry on this shit sundae is that climate impacts aren't even grounds for the federal government to block this development under current law. The system is so rigged in favor of fossil fuel fuckery that the single most relevant consequence of the project is legally irrelevant. The Greens are begging the feds to stop it, but they might as well be pissing into a hurricane. New South Wales has decided that a few more decades of digging up climate poison is a solid business plan, proving once and for all that when it comes to choosing between a habitable planet and a short-term buck, these greedy bastards will always pick the cash. They're not leaders; they're fucking grave-diggers on a commission.
