Pursuant to section 72 of the Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Act 2023 (HRE Act) the Minister must, in accordance with the requirements prescribed by the Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Regulations 2024 (HRE Regulations), undertake public consultation on:

• an environmental impact report (EIR)
• a statement (or revised statement) of environmental objectives (SEO)
• a scoping report.

Environmental impact report and statement of environmental objectives

As shown in the HRE Act approvals process image below, an EIR and SEO must be in place prior to the approval of a license application under the HRE Act. When an EIR and SEO has been developed, public consultation must be undertaken at the highlighted step in the process.

Prior to an EIR and SEO becoming available for public consultation pursuant to section 72 of the HRE Act, the proponent developing the EIR and SEO must have undertaken consultation on the documents with relevant stakeholders in accordance with regulation 33 of the HRE Regulations. The outcomes of the proponent's consultation are reported in the EIR, as required by the HRE Regulations.

For more information on the approvals process under the HRE Act, refer to the licensing and approvals webpage.

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Scoping report

Under section 71 of the HRE Act, a scoping report may be developed optionally by the proponent or may be required by the Minister in particular cases, that is a scoping report is not required for every application under the HRE Act. The requirements for a scoping report are detailed under section 71 of the Act, and generally should relate to the following:

• categorisation of the level of impact of proposed operations
• informing the level of detail and/or extent of work required to undertake an environmental impact assessment
• identifying and prioritising issues associated with environmental impact assessment, and/or
• determining the impacts of a project on people or communities including relevant control measures.

Where a scoping report has been prepared, the proponent must undertake consultation with relevant stakeholders in accordance with regulation 38. Upon completion of the proponents consultation and where the scoping report has suitably been updated to address any responses from the proponents consultation, the Minister must, in accordance with section 72 of the Act, undertake public consultation.

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Consultation

While legislative obligations must be met, the Department for Energy and Mining (DEM) has adopted recognised national regulatory principles and approaches including engagement and accountability. Public consultation underpins these principles and approaches.

It is recognised that:

• It is essential to engage with people and communities who are directly affected by or have an interest in the proposal.
• It is essential for people and communities who are directly affected, or have an interest in the proposal, to have an opportunity to understand and provide comment on the potential impacts, the prosed controls or mitigation strategies for those impacts, and the regulatory obligations that have been committed to.
• Communities have a wealth of knowledge about their local environment that may not be available to the proponent or DEM through formal records.
• Benefits for both the local community and the  proponent may be identified through two-way flow of information between the community and proponents.

This is an opportunity for the community to understand the proposal and scope of the operation, and to make comment on the proposal.

As well as the notice on this website, public notices inviting public comment may also be posted in an appropriate newspaper, or newspapers, and will also be provided to the local council and the landowner of the site.

DEM seeks comment from the public that are specific to the content of an EIR, SEO and/or scoping report.

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Open consultations

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Contact for more information

If you have any questions about the consultation process contact:

• Email: Jarrod.Spencer@sa.gov.au
• Phone: +61884292447

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