The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was pleased to announce today that Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry refused to grant all the Orders requested by activists, Vanda Radzik and Elizabeth Deane-Hughes, who made an Application for Judicial Review to, among other things, have the Environmental Permit for the Gas-to-Energy (GTE) Project cancelled.
The two who were represented by Melinda Janki, Abiola Wong –Inniss and Joel Ross, alleged that the EPA acted in breach of the law by failing to require ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (formerly Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited) to show that it had the legal right to conduct the activity on the lands through which the Natural Gas Transport Pipeline would traverse.
In response to the allegations raised, the EPA, the Attorney General of Guyana, Anil Nandlall and ExxonMobil Guyana Limited adduced cogent evidence of the documentation provided to establish EMGL’s legal right to conduct the activity. Whilst it was noted that further documentations should have been submitted, at paragraph 69 of the judgment, the Court highlighted the fact that, “Judicial review is not concerned with vindication in the public sphere… It was never intended to be a sword for satisfaction but rather a shield against excesses of public functionaries”.
The Court therefore took note of the fact that, “there [was] no evidence that the Applicants were personally aggrieved by the EPA’s decision to grant a permit to Esso Guyana…. [t]he Applicants [did not] cogently articulate what real or substantial public wrong occurred to them or the wide Guyanese populace upon the grant of the environmental permit facility, which would justify quashing the decision of the EPA”.
As a result, the Court determined that none of the Orders requested by the Applicants would be granted.
The EPA was represented by Frances Carryl, Shareefah Parks and Niomi Alsopp who were led by Sanjeev Datadin.
