Headline: Minister diluting official language to hide risks
Environment Minister Amy Adams is deliberately diluting the language of officials to downplay the risks of deep sea drilling, Labour’s Environment spokesperson Moana Mackey says.
“Documents released to Labour under the Official Information Act show the Minister has not been upfront with the public about the likely impacts of an oil spill on the environment.
“In response to a question in the House last month Ms Adams stated: ‘I have received advice that if a large-scale oil spill were to occur, it may well have significant environmental risks, but I have also had advice saying that the likelihood of such a spill from an exploratory drill was very low.’
“While the OIA documents do state the likelihood of an oil spill is ‘low’ officials’ advice to the Minister on the potential impact of an oil spill is much more serious than she has been letting on.
“What the Minister describes as ‘significant’, officials describe as ‘catastrophic’. Where Ms Adams says an oil spill ‘may well have significant environmental risk’, official advice states such a spill ‘is highly likely to have a catastrophic impact’.
“The advice goes further stating that ‘there is evidence that incident risk becomes greater as depth increases. Knowledge about localized geology, types of hydrocarbons, and pressure profiles in ultra-deep water wells is still not thoroughly developed’.
“This is deeply concerning given the permissive nature of the legislation which would regulate the drilling of any wells in the EEZ. The further aware from shore we get, the greater the risk and the less we know about the environment we are operating in, and yet regulation of this activity gets weaker, not stronger. That’s crazy.
“The National Government is desperate to grease the wheels for the oil and gas industry because they have no plan B for regional economic development. And unfortunately they are prepared to weaken environmental protections and risk ‘catastrophic’ impacts on our precious marine environment in order to do so,” Moana Mackey says.
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