#rosebank

The ruling from Lord Ericht to suspend the Rosebank and Jackdaw projects was announced today (30 January) following court proceedings late last year brought by NGOs Greenpeace UK and Uplift. Greenpeace had challenged both projects while Uplift focused its attentions on Rosebank. Lord Ericht ruled that the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) and then-Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng acted unlawfully when approving Jackdaw in early 2022 because insufficient information had been provided in the environmental impact assessments considering downstream emissions – those produced when the oil and gas produced is finally used. Lord Ericht reached the same conclusion regarding the OGA and then-Energy and Net-Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho’s approval of Rosebank in mid-2023. Both approvals were justified on the grounds of job creation and energy security, despite the fact that oil and gas are globally traded commodities, limiting the UK’s ability to reserve production for itself. Around 80% of North Sea oil production is for export. Extracting fossil fuels from the Rosebank oil field project, being developed by Equinor, and the Jackdaw project, being developed by Shell Group subsidiary BG International, will now be banned unless either developer can present updated environmental impact assessments. Ministers should assess whether the figures could be compatible with legally binding carbon budgets. The final opinion documents state: “The public interest in authorities acting lawfully and the private interest of members of the public in climate change outweigh the private interest of the developers.   The factors advanced by Shell, Equinor and Ithaca in respect of their private interest do not justify the departure on equitable grounds from the normal remedy of reduction of an unlawful decision.”

omg they're building another pipeline!? this is the Dakota Access Pipeline all over again