UPDATE:
The proponent submitted a response to our review of the assessment. Our response to the proponent’s response can be downloaded below:
Original post below.
Economists at Large have undertaken a review of Appendix Q – Economic assessment of the environmental impact statement into the continuation of the Boggabri Coal Mine, located in north-central New South Wales.
We have found several issues that call into question aspects of the analysis presented by the Economic Assessment. These issues are:
- No economic analysis of scenarios have been undertaken other than cessation of mining in 2011 and a 21 year, open cut extension despite seven alternative scenarios being mentioned in the Environmental Assessment report.
- Mixing of private financial values and public economic values within the cost-benefit analysis.
- Miscalculation and/or omission of external costs and benefits.
The result of these issues is that the assessment – the cost-benefit analysis and then carried on into the economic impact assessment – present values that inflate public benefits and under estimate public costs. The assessment seems to avoid discussion of distribution of benefits between stakeholders and fail to assess all alternative methods of expanding this mine.
In summary, the overstatement of benefits and understatement of costs of the project mean that the modelling results for the Economic Impact Assessment are heavily compromised and should not be used for decision making purposes.
Click here to download the full review and findings.
Click here to see further details of the project on the NSW Planning website.
