Geelong Viva Gas Terminal has come under government and community scrutiny regarding environmental concerns.
Viva Energy’s Floating Regasification and Storage Unit (FRSU) proposal for Corio Bay received 2043 Parliamentary Inquiry submissions, with most opposing the project.
No More Gas campaign coordinator Freja Leonard said Viva had been called out during the Inquiry hearing for lack of consideration of the community impacts of the project.
“The Viva floating gas terminal proposal has been the focus of a powerful local campaign,” she said.
“The community has rightly raised concerns about the FRSU’s proximity to local homes and businesses in the event of malicious damage or an industrial accident and its impact on local fishing and enjoyment of the bay.
“None of these issues were adequately addressed by Viva Energy before or during the Parliamentary Inquiry.”
Ms Leonard said close to thirty-thousand residents live within 3.5-kilometres of the site of the proposed terminal.
“If something were to go wrong it would be terminal in all the worst ways for those in the path of an explosion or significant leak,” she said.
The Geelong Renewables Not Gas campaign, run by Australian Conservation Foundation Community Geelong, spokesperson Darcy Dunn said he wished the proposal would not continue.
“More than 2000 people and organisations made submissions against Viva’s project, including Geelong Grammar School, North Shore Residents Association, GeelongPort and many other community organisations and individuals,” he said.
“An additional process just places a greater burden on the community to respond.”
Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny decided in parliament last Wednesday that the project required an additional Environment Effects Statement to be prepared.
Environment Victoria chief executive officer Jono La Nauze said he believed parliament should have rejected the project outright.
“While we’re pleased the government has acknowledged that Viva Energy’s current Environmental Effects Statement is completely inadequate, the planning minister should go further and reject this polluting project,” he said.
“The new Environment Effects Statement must consider Victoria’s new climate change targets to cut emissions by up to 80 per cent by 2035.
“The last thing we need is a new gas terminal that will lock us into relying on expensive imported gas for years to come.”
