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'Getting priorities right'
Georgina Woods,spokeswoman for the Lock the Gate Alliance,welcomed the decision as proof that"NSW is getting its priorities right,safeguarding strategic farmland and water resources from destruction and depletion for coal mining".
“The Bylong Valley is a very special place,not just for the farmers that produce wool,beef,and fodder there,but for people around the state that recognise its extraordinary beauty and rich cultural and natural heritage,"she said.
“It was the wrong place for a coal mine and this is the wrong time for NSW to be opening up new areas for coal exploitation as the world shifts away from coal in a bid to halt global warming."
David Morris,chief executive of the Environmental Defenders Office NSW,said the Commission had heard similar expert evidence to that relied on by the Land and Environment Court when it refused the Rocky Hill mine.
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“It is clearer than ever that the Rocky Hill judgment sets a best-practice standard when considering new fossil fuel developments,"Mr Morris said.
"This mine would have been even bigger - in fact much bigger - than Rocky Hill,with concomitantly bigger carbon impacts,"he said."In helping to stop this development,we acted in the public interest to constrain emissions and climate change impacts.”
Rob Stokes,the Planning and Public Spaces Minister,said the rejection of the project was"significant as mining is incredibly important to the NSW economy".
"We welcome big investments in NSW,but the IPC has determined that,on balance,this project would do more harm than good for future generations."
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'Utter failure'
Among the benefits from the project were as many as 470 mine jobs alone at full production and between $4.74-4.95 billion in so-called"gross regional income",the Commission found. Annual output was to be 6.5 million tonnes of coal.
Stephen Galilee,chief executive of theNSW Minerals Council,described the Commission as"faceless"and said the Bylong rejection"represents everything that is wrong with the NSW planning system".
"This refusal is a massive lost opportunity for the local region and in particular the communities of Kandos and Rylstone where the economic injection from the jobs and investment associated with the project are desperately needed,"Mr Galilee said,noting the refusal had followed seven years of assessment.
"This is an absurd and dangerous economic approach that risks making NSW an international investment laughing stock,losing investment and jobs due to uncertainty on who sets planning policy in NSW - faceless bureaucrats or elected representatives?"Mr Galilee said.
However,Warwick Pearse from the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance,said the Commission's decision meant the valley would"continue to be the productive and beautiful valley it has been for many years”.
“It underlines the need to actually give legal protection for prime agricultural land,"he said."This farmland should never have been put at risk in the first place.”