5 May 2017

FOY's planned oil refinery has hit a major obstacle

| David Tuckwell
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FOY Group

FOY group’s controversial plan to build an oil refinery in Hume has been shot down by a government-appointed expert panel.

The panel said the company’s environmental impact statement failed to sufficiently address key risks, including the risk of explosions, the potential damage to surrounding land, and the effects on air quality.

The panel’s opinion is non-binding, but its decision will influence whether the land authority approves any development application.

“The panel has highlighted the high level of risk associated with a project of this nature and recommended that, even if all of the identified issues were addressed, the approval authorities would still need to see the outcome of a fully operational pilot project before approving a full-scale facility,” said Mick Gentleman MLA, the ACT Minister for Planning.

The panel has also recommended that Worksafe considers whether the facility should be considered a ‘Major Hazard Facility’. On the basis of the high level of risk, the panel expressed concern that the proposal would limit the range of uses on surrounding land in Hume.

FOY’s planned oil refinery was originally proposed in NSW, where it was rejected by the Environmental Protection Agency.

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I saw an article in the paper that the company plan to commission yet another study from Sydney university to say it’s all ok. Meanwhile – the ACT taxpayers are missing out on the $3.1mill they were supposed to pay for the land. When will they pay that, I wonder? Will Mick “The Enforcer” Gentleman start putting the hard word on them to cough up?

If the extension to the life of the MLRMC had been subjected to the same scrutiny that the Foy proposal has been, Canberra and Queanbeyan would now be dumping their domestic waste at the Tarago bio-reactor.

There is a leaked report floating around that the decision to approve the extension was against advice given by consultants as to how the social amenity of the odour affected residential suburbs to the west and south would be affected, particularly in respect of property values that would decline due to the “stigma” effect.

This advice was ignored due to political expediency; the suburbs in question being predominately non-Labor voting areas.

I am tipping that when the residents get all the details there will be a class action mounted against the government seeking to close the MLRMC forever.

Concurrent with this possible development Foy could claim being victim to a double standard whereby the government approved its own development (being extension of the MLRMC ) while declining approval for the plastics factory yet essentially the environmental dangers are exactly the same.

I hope the Foy people note these comments.

wildturkeycanoe said :

It is great to see that both public opinion and cool heads prevailed in this decision making process. I wonder though how soon FOY will make a 2nd attempt with some new information to bolsters their claims, that was coincidentally just recently released.

Ok so the Inquiry Panel slammed FOY:
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/independent-panel-slams-proposed-hume-plastics-plant-20170503-gvy4no.html

However Mick Gentleman and Shane Rattenbury have stood by and left the door open?
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/foy-group-aims-to-prove-safety-of-a-plastictofuel-plant-for-hume-20170509-gw0oa6.html

Close it, please! This is the time to say no to polluting fossil-fuel projects.

wildturkeycanoe8:02 am 08 May 17

It is great to see that both public opinion and cool heads prevailed in this decision making process. I wonder though how soon FOY will make a 2nd attempt with some new information to bolsters their claims, that was coincidentally just recently released.

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