The Australia Institute made a written submission on the latest proposal to re-start the Invincible Coal Mine. As with the earlier proposals, we oppose this project as, in our view, the economic benefits to the NSW community are unlikely to outweigh the environmental risks that it presents.

Our key point is that the motivation behind the project is not the claimed supply of ‘specialty nut coal’ for Manildra’s starch mills, but is the supply of coal to the Mt Piper Power station, owned by Hong Kong listed Energy Australia. Even on the optimistic numbers of the EIS, over 80% of the value of the project relates to supplying Mt Piper, and less than 20% comes from supplying the mill.