Environmental Protection Authority won't live up to its name

The Government’s Environmental Protection Authority won’t live up to its name, the Green Party said today.
The just-announced EPA Board was light on environmental champions and heavy on development and infrastructure representatives, said Green Party Resource Management spokesperson David Clendon.

“None of the eight board members really represent the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who love this place and want to look after it. They do represent business interests such as roading companies and phone companies.”

There was also something Orwellian about talk of ‘balancing’ environmental and economic interests, the Green MP said: “The Environmental Protection Authority should be focused on protecting the environment. ‘Balance’ is a code word for more drilling and more mining and more development, giving up a bit more of our land and water every year.

“Unfortunately, it all points to a very permissive EPA rather than one that wants to establish strong environmental standards.”

The Board includes Richard Woods formerly the Chair of the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA), one of the agencies forming the new EPA. Mr Clendon noted that ERMA had a history of accepting high risk applications some of which were later overturned by the Court of Appeal. “We’re not expecting anything different from the EPA; use the same people, you’ll get the same culture.

“It is hard to believe that any agency formed by John Key's Government will give us greater environmental protection. They’re keen to mine our National Parks, drill in deep water without any safety plan and they sacked ECan to make it easier to irrigate despite a water crisis in Canterbury,” said Mr Clendon.

“The Minister for the Environment Nick Smith is very enthusiastic about fast tracking big infrastructure projects. It looks like he’s appointed a Board that will agree with him and rubber stamp Government projects, regardless of their environmental consequences.”