An email I sent in response to request for info re possible question to Legco:
One thing that I haven’t heard: does the budget for the LNG terminal include the costs of dismantling it, and restoring the area to its original condition or better (both on land, and underwater)?
Surely, this should be guaranteed before any work begins.
I ask partly as have heard of (nuclear) plants, open coal mines etc, where costs for dismantling etc are so huge, they would make them economically unviable.
But, tends to be that the things are built/done, then society at large is left to pick up the bill for repairing the environment.
Perhaps of some interest: an article on the costs, including hidden costs, of coal mining in the US:
The Costs of Coal in Pennsylvania
Effects of Longwall Mining
Includes:
The Department of Environmental Protection acts more like a Department of Energy Production when it ignores existing laws and regulations and provides the mining industry a de facto exemption from the same environmental protection requirements that other industries must comply with. The costs to extract coal are passed along to the coalfield residents, to the environment, and to the taxpayers, thereby inflating the private profits of mine operators and distorting coal’s market advantage over competing energy resources.