The Environment Court today announced that they were allowing Solid Energy to continue with its plans for the open-cast Happy Valley coal mine.

The minesite is about 20km Northeast of Westport on the West Coast, and is home to the Great Spotted Kiwi, rare native land snails and a host of other threatened species. The mine will completely obliterate the valley, ripping up 100m of topsoil and destroying the fragile wetland at the valley floor as well as native tussock and shrubland.

As well as having devastating local impacts, the creation of yet another coal mine will have serious global impacts, further contributing to climate change [Article].

The militant Save Happy Valley Campaign has issued a press release vowing to pursue a campaign of direct action now legal avenues have been exhausted, building on previous actions [Articles [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]]. Rising Tide and Forest and Bird have also sent out press releases condemning the mine's go-ahead.

UPDATE: The Christchurch section of The Save Happy Valley Campaign has also put out a press release.