Document Actions
Australian court allows trial on licence to emit unlimited CO2 (22 March 2010)
On 22 March 2010, Justice Pain of the Land and Environment Court allowed Gray & Hodgson v Macquarie Generation to proceed to trial on the issue of whether Macquarie Generation is allowed to emit unlimited levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Justice Pain found that the applicant’s argument that Macquarie Generation is not authorised to emit any carbon dioxide at all is “unlikely to succeed” and dismissed that part of their case.
The case has been brought by the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), acting on behalf of Rising Tide members Mr Peter Gray and Ms Naomi Hodgson. Gray and Hodgson argue that as Macquarie Generation is not expressly authorised to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere under its environment protection licence (a licence which authorises and regulates pollution), its emission of carbon dioxide is unlawful.
In its strike out application, Macquarie Generation argued that even if its environment protection licence does not expressly authorise the emission of carbon dioxide, its authority to emit carbon dioxide should be implied on the basis that the production of carbon dioxide is a necessary part of generating electricity.
