The Australia Institute made a submission to the Planning Assessment Commission for Newcastle’s Terminal 4 coal project.

We oppose the Terminal 4 project. For the project’s capacity to be utilised an increase in the rate of coal extraction in NSW is required beyond the continuation and replacement of existing mines. Such increases are unlikely to be in the public interest given the social and environmental impacts of current mines and their impacts on other industries. Extracting and transporting a further 70 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) from the Hunter Valley and environs would require seven new mines the size of Rio Tinto’s Warkworth or Shenhua’s Watermark proposal. Given the controversy surrounding these projects, it is difficult to see how such an expansion is economically and socially desirable, or politically feasible.