Cougar Energy specialises in underground coal gasification(UCG) and electricity generation.
Cougar Energy sues Queensland government, DERM officials for more than $34M
Cougar Energy (ASX: CXY) has commenced legal proceedings against the Queensland government and three government officials, seeking more than $34 million in compensation over the decision to halt development of the company’s coal seam gas project at Kingaroy.
Cougar Energy also recently lodged an appeal in the Queensland Planning and Environment Court challenging amendments to its permit which require the site to be decommissioned.
The company is suing previous Department of Environment and Resource Management chief executives John Bradley and Terry Wall and current CEO James Reeves for negligence and breach of statutory duties in their administration of the Queensland Environmental Protection Act.
Cougar Energy is taking legal action following the continued refusal of the defendants to allow the plant to re-open, which the company says is in spite of a wealth of scientific evidence that the operations posed no threat to the environment.
Chairman Malcolm McAully said the state government and DERM officials had applied innapropriate water quality guidelines in justifying the closure of the project.
By contrast, the company said DERM and the government have taken no significant action against coal seam gas projects elsewhere in the state, despite higher detections of chemicals over the past year.
Where it all began
The stoush between Cougar and the government began in mid-2010, when a water test returned anomalous results for chemical contamination.
On July 14, the company said it had made a good faith agreement with the DERM to work together to gather further water tests, however on July 15, John Bradley issued a media release stating that the Kingaroy site was to remain closed until the government was assured that groundwater resources were protected.
On July 16, Cougar Energy released a statement saying that the original water test had been found to be incorrect by independent testing laboratory Golder Associates.
In addition, a subsequent test sample from the same water bore taken one week later generated a clean reading, free of contaminants.
However, on July 17, Bradley authorised the serving of formal orders preventing the recommencement of operations, despite DERM’s own test results that day finding no evidence of chemicals breaching the drinking water standards.
