Horse Hill courtroom battle may set precedent that triggers ‘starting of the top’ of recent fossil gasoline initiatives in UK
The firm behind a controversial coal mine in West Cumbria and the UK surroundings regulator are each intervening in a separate courtroom battle over plans to pump oil within the Surrey countryside.
Next month’s Supreme Court case about whether or not to extract about three million tonnes of oil from Horse Hill is considered a check case that would deliver the “beginning of the end” of recent fossil gasoline manufacturing within the UK.
The website, close to Gatwick, was first authorised by Surrey County Council in 2019 however has confronted a authorized problem by campaigners ever since, and can subsequent month go earlier than the UK’s highest courtroom.
Unusually, the Supreme Court has permitted 4 additional our bodies to intervene – that means they will make written or oral submissions to assist the courtroom’s understanding, reflecting the general public significance of the case.
If authorised, Horse Hill would extract oil from six wells over 25 years
One of these weighing in is West Cumbria Mining, whose plan to develop the UK’s first new coal mine in 30 years in Whitehaven was controversially authorised by the federal government in December.
WCM didn’t reply to a request to touch upon why it had intervened.
But if the campaigner’s enchantment in opposition to the Surrey oil website wins subsequent month, it could possibly be “that you have to completely reassess whether that coal mine in Cumbria can happen at all”, based on barrister Sam Fowles.
“It is extremely difficult to overstate the significance of this case,” mentioned Mr Fowles, who specialises in planning and surroundings legislation at Cornerstone Barristers.
It has the potential set off the “beginning of the end of … new fossil fuel extraction in the UK going forward”, he added.
The authorities is because of decide imminently on the enormous Rosebank oil and fuel subject within the North Sea.
Charles McAllister, director of trade group UK Onshore Oil and Gas, referred to as it “incontrovertible” that the UK wants some oil and fuel past 2050, “even with huge growth in renewables”.
“It’s a case of where we got it from, not if we need or not.”
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‘Clear ramifications’ for future initiatives
Both the Cumbria coal mine and the Surrey oil case hinge on the identical thorny difficulty plaguing planning authorities presiding over fossil gasoline initiatives.
The query is whether or not their assessments of the mission’s injury to the surroundings need to think about solely the emissions from getting the fossil gasoline out of the bottom, or additionally from when it is used or burned later “downstream”.
These are referred to as “scope 3” emissions and have a tendency to make up the vast majority of a mission’s or firm’s greenhouse gases. Fossil fuels are the primary explanation for local weather change, which is already threatening the UK by way of issues like rising sea ranges and final summer season’s intense drought.
Both the Cumbria coal mine and the Horse Hill oil website had been authorised partly on the idea that these “downstream” emissions needn’t be taken into consideration, and due to this fact total emissions can be low.
Sarah Finch, the lead campaigner difficult the oil resolution, informed Sky News: “More than 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide could be released when the oil from Horse Hill is ultimately burned.”
Katie de Kauwe, a lawyer at campaigning group Friends of the Earth, which can also be intervening, mentioned: “It can’t be right that the biggest impacts of fossil fuel projects on people and our planet can effectively be left out when planning decisions are made.
“This is a vastly consequential authorized problem that would have clear ramifications for different fossil gasoline developments, together with the brand new coal mine deliberate in West Cumbria and the legality of the Secretary of State’s resolution to approve it.
“West Cumbria Mining is clearly concerned, which is why they’re intervening.”
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Ms Finch’s preliminary problem within the High Court was thrown out. But she took it to the following courtroom, the Court of Appeal, the place the three judges had been break up, with one agreeing she had some extent however the majority saying it was a matter for planning authorities fairly than the courtroom.
But that creates an enormous downside, based on the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) – the UK surroundings watchdog arrange after Brexit in 2021 – which is, for the primary time, intervening in a Supreme Court case.
“It means that local planning authorities could reach entirely different conclusions on an important issue of principle on essentially the same facts,” it mentioned in its submission to the courtroom, leaving the legislation “in an unpredictable state with potentially capricious results”.
Horse Hill has been challenged by campaigners because it was first authorised in 2019
‘Not clear-cut’ if UK ought to pump extra oil and fuel – local weather advisers
“If it is successful, which I don’t think it will be, it will set a precedent,” mentioned Charles McAllister from UKOOG.
If the campaigners win, it will have “far-reaching implications beyond the onshore oil and gas industry, ranging from the offshore oil and gas industry, mining, metals, manufacturing, aviation”, he warned.
The Horse Hill website would extract round 200,000 barrels of oil over 25 years, which could possibly be used to energy jets, create electrical energy or warmth houses. The UK produces about a million barrels of oil a day.
UK Onshore Oil and Gas says its greener to extract oil at residence
Independent authorities local weather advisers from the CCC have mentioned the UK will want some oil till 2050, although it’s “not clear-cut” whether or not it ought to produce extra domestically.
The International Energy Agency has mentioned no new fossil gasoline mission is appropriate with the globally accepted aim of limiting warming to 1.5C.
UK Oil and Gas, the primary builders of Horse Hill, declined to remark.
A spokesperson for Surrey County Council mentioned it’s “required to determine planning applications in accordance with the Development Plan, the National Planning Policy Framework, national policy and other material considerations, as set out in legislation and case law.
“The County Council will current its case to the Supreme Court, which can difficulty a call in the end.”
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