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Genesis Energy says it is still reviewing the engineering and operational specifications of its proposed gas-fired power station in Rodney.
But if it goes ahead with the project, final operational configuration of the plant will be consistent with government directives and the New Zealand energy strategy, it said yesterday.
The company was welcoming the Court of Appeal's declaratory judgment that the Auckland Regional Council must not take into account the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change when considering any resource consent application for a power station.
"The court's decision now gives Genesis Energy and others certainty when preparing resource consent applications for facilities that emit greenhouse gases," the company said yesterday.
A 2004 change to the Resource Management Act removed the ability of regional councils to consider the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change when writing rules and deciding on consent conditions.
The appeal court said this week that the power station at Rodney, on the edge of the Kaipara Harbour, north of Auckland, may yet go ahead.
"The application remains alive and is being processed," the court said in its judgment.
Energy Minister David Parker claimed in October that state-owned generators - including Genesis - had been told not to proceed with any plans to add thermal power generators to their baseload ability.
But Finance Minister Michael Cullen has since implied that the gas-fired plant could get the go-ahead under the new energy strategy if there was an absolutely clear offset against higher emitting thermal capacity elsewhere.
And the court said that the Government's policy - and legislation introduced last week for a 10-year ban on new fossil-fuel power stations - does "not exclude the reasonable possibility that the application will proceed".
- NZPA
