Scaling up: Renewable energy on Aboriginal lands in north west Australia

This paper examines renewable energy developments on Aboriginal lands in North-West Western Australia at three scales. It first examines the literature developing in relation to large scale renewable energy projects and the Native Title Act (1993)Cwlth. It then looks to the history of small community scale standalone systems. Finally, it examines locally adapted approaches to benefit sharing in remote utility owned networks. In doing so this paper foregrounds the importance of Aboriginal agency. It identifies Aboriginal decision making and economic inclusion as being key to policy and project development in the 'scaling up' of a transition to renewable energy resources in the North-West.

Native title contestation in Western Australia's Pilbara region

The rights afforded to Indigenous Australians under the Native Title Act 1993 (NTA) are very limited and allow for undue coercion by corporate interests, contrary to the claims of many prominent authors in this field. Unlike the Commonwealth’s first land rights law, Aboriginal Lands Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (ALRA) , the NTA does not offer a right of veto to Aboriginal parties; instead, they have a right to negotiate with developers, which has in practice meant very little leverage in negotiations for native title parties. And unlike ALRA, developers can deal with any Indigenous corporation, rather than land councils. These two factors have encouraged opportunistic conduct by some developers and led to vexatious litigation designed to break the resistance of native title parties, as demonstrated by the experience of Aboriginal corporations in the iron ore-rich Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The New Dawn — Commercial and Regulatory Considerations Affecting Liquified Natural Gas Export from British Columbia

This article explores a sampling of commercial and regulatory issues, challenges, and risks encountered in the development of the Kitimat Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) project. The authors describe practical and innovative solutions proposed by lawyers to address the issues, resolve the challenges, and mitigate the risks of an LNG export project. The commercial and regulatory arrangements of the Kitimat LNG project are described. Industrial development on Aboriginal lands is overviewed, particularly in regards to the need for consultation with Aboriginal communities and First Nations groups affected by the proposed LNG project. The National Energy Board export authorizations are also overviewed, with a focus on the export licence requirement for an LNG project.