No revision to Indonesian environment law: Ministry

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 3 Mar 10;

The Environment Ministry has insisted that it would not delay the implementation of the 2009 Environment Law as it did not believe it would hamper the mining of the country’s rich mineral resources.

The ministry also asserted that it would not amend an article of the law, which has created controversy as it was initiated purely by the House of Representatives.

The statement was made in response to calls from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and oil and gas business groups for a two-year delay over fears that the law’s tightened standards of emissions and waste water levels could hurt oil and gas production.

“The complaint against the new emissions and waste water standards is baseless. We have not yet discussed the draft of the government regulation to set the new standards,” Illyas Asaad, deputy for environmental compliance at the Environment Ministry told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Article 100 of the 2009 Environment Law stipulates that anyone violating standards of waste water, emissions and noise levels will face a maximum of three years imprisonment and/or up to Rp 3 billion in fines.

The law says criminal sanctions could only be implemented if the business people failed to comply with administrative penalties.

It says the administrative sanctions, include temporary closure of waste water pipes and emissions or even the closure of all operations.

“There is no need to fear crimi-nal sanctions if the company is willing to comply with the regulation,” said acting deputy minister on pollution control Hermien Rosita on Tuesday.

Director general for oil and gas at the energy ministry, Evita Herawati Legowo said that should the law be implemented, it could cut the country’s oil and gas production by about 40 percent.

She said several contractors would prefer stopping their activities rather than breaking rules that could lead to criminal punishment.

This year, the government is aiming to produce 965,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) as stipulated
in the 2010 national budget. Last year’s production was about 960,000 bpd.

Activists have long protested against the poor environmental management of many mining companies, as well as the fact that poverty rates of people living around the mining areas remained high.

The Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) has pushed the government to implement the law and impose sanctions on companies failing to meet environmental standards.

The environment law also requires business entities to secure environmental permits before beginning their operations.

The failure to secure environmental permits would result in the termination of the business’ license.

The Environment Ministry has promised to issue the regulations, including on the emissions and waste water standards needed to implement the law this year.