No good to exaggerate the uncertainty and confuse people on Watermark coal mine

Comments Matthew Currell "Shenhua mine’s water uncertainty means we should proceed with caution", 24/07/2015

The author of this post, Matthew Currell seems to think he is better positioned than the federal environment minister in relation to the environmental issues regarding to the Shenhua Watermark coal mine in NSW. The minister has reasonably adequate information before him when he approved the mine, including presumably the twice reports by the Independent Expert Scientific Committee (on large coal mining and coal seam gas) that has carefully examined the groundwater assessments done on behalf of Shenhua on two occasions, as the author acknowledged.

And there are also further processes and hurdles to be past before the mine starts. As the author put it: "Shenhua still needs a license from NSW, and approval of further plans around water management from the federal government."

Then the author strangely has argued the following:

"The Federal and NSW governments still have a chance to prevent the Shenhua mine from going ahead, and would have strong support from rural Australians and others who are concerned about the environmental impacts in doing so.

"This decision will be critical in setting the future direction and priorities of the country – continuing with business as usual, or progressing to a new era of strategic thinking about long-term natural resources protection.

"Both the economic and environmental risks of continued expansion of coal mining for export in Australia have been highlighted recently. Whether the warnings are heeded may have enormous future consequences."

It seems the author is so biased and strongly against the mine irrespective what the merit of the mine is and what the Independent Expert Scientific Committee has found and will find.

Maybe that is the best an extreme environmentalist would do.