The Federal Minister for the Environment and Water has made an administrative determination that the Browse Carbon Capture and Storage Project in Western Australia will be assessed wholly under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Previously, the environmental impacts of different components of offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects were required to be assessed under separate regulatory regimes.
Assessing this project wholly under national environmental law improves regulatory clarity for CCS proponents and enable a more comprehensive assessment under the newly reformed, strengthened EPBC Act.
All other approvals including those under state or territory legislation must still be obtained.
Separately, a departmental delegate has decided that a reconsideration request from the Australian Conservation Foundation, relating to a 2019 referral decision on the Browse to North West Shelf Development project, is a valid request under the EPBC Act.
This is an administrative decision and not a decision on the substantive reconsideration application.
The reconsideration request will now be published on the department’s website for 20 business days for public comment, before a decision is made on whether to uphold the original referral decision or replace it with a new one.
As the reconsideration request is currently active, it would not be appropriate to comment further.
