NZ green lobby irate over EEZ oil plans THE New Zealand government is ploughing ahead with proposals that will keep deep-sea oil explorers shielded from public scrutiny of their plans to drill exploration wells in the country's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Environment Minister Amy Adams has released draft regulations governing the EEZ to replace transitional arrangements, which led to Texan oil and gas explorer Anadarko getting an exploration licence without requiring public notification or hearings. The move has angered the Environmental Defence Society (EDS), which says Prime Minister John Key had indicated that the non-notifiable status of EEZ oil exploration activity was unlikely to be retained. "We understood, following a meeting with the prime minister, that the government was considering a different and more robust approach to these regulations," said EDS chairman Gary Taylor in a statement. But the regulations are unchanged from what was originally proposed and give oil and gas exploration drilling an easy pathway to approval. There will be no notification of applications for oil and gas exploratory drilling, no public hearing, no rights to cross-examine applicants on their track record and no ability to bring expert evidence on the adequacy or otherwise of spill mitigation measures. He said it was left to the Environmental Protection Authority to assess applications behind closed doors and the EPA had yet to demonstrate its competence. Greenpeace New Zealand is seeking a judicial review of the process the EPA followed to allow Anadarko to drill exploration wells in a deep-sea Taranaki prospect, under way, and a second well early next year in the EEZ off the Canterbury coast. The new regulations put meat on the bones of new legislation governing economic activity in the EEZ, which extends from the 12 nautical mile coastal waters limit, where existing resource management and environmental law operates, out to 200 kilometres from the coast. Public submissions on the proposed regulations are due by January 31.