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The Court of Appeal today overturned a High Court ruling which said climate change and greenhouse gas emissions should be a consideration under the Resource Management Act.
Greenpeace won the original High Court ruling that climate change could be considered in RMA consents for such projects.
But today, the appeal court ruled: "In considering the application by Genesis Power for a discharge permit into the air of greenhouse gases associated with the proposed Rodney power station, the Auckland Regional Council must not have regard to the effects of that discharge on climate change."
The High Court had earlier said regional councils considering resource consents for Mighty River Power's plans to convert the Marsden B power station in Northland to run on coal could take climate change into account. Since the ruling in October last year, Mighty River Power has abandoned its plans for the conversion.
The Government last week introduced legislation for a 10-year ban on new fossil-fuel power stations. The law change will ban new fossil fuel power plants unless the Electricity Commission deems them necessary to ensure the security of the power supply, or they are sufficiently mixed with renewable energy or based on waste products.
But Genesis then began legal moves to reverse the High Court decision, saying such a declaration would help it gain resource consents for its planned gas-fired Rodney generators.
Genesis also runs Huntly power station, one of the nation's biggest source of greenhouse gases from an industrial site.
Greenpeace climate campaigner Susannah Bailey predicted before the latest hearing that a Genesis win would remove the only legal control on polluters' greenhouse gas emissions.
Ms Bailey said a "legal vacuum" could allow millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases to be emitted.
More soon.
- NZPA
