Environmental groups, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Birdlife and the Queensland Conservation Council, are asking the Palaszczuk government to stop such exemptions, arguing that the public cannot provide proper scrutiny without environmental impact statements.“The risks with this approach are obvious.”Queensland’s environmental department said its process provides thorough project assessments against strict environmental criteria, but independent experts on a panel put together by the federal government found some weak points in the process, particularly that it doesn’t consider the cumulative effects of projects.The Vulcan South mine is expected to reach 1.95 million metric tons of coking coal per year and will need to clear 1,000 hectares of koala habitat for the project.The eight projects recently approved for the Great Barrier Reef catchments and floodplains will have about 1,866 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions, according to the coalition of environmental groups fighting to end the environmental impact statement exemptions.Although the Queensland environment department noted it is working on reforming its procedures, critics argue that impact statements must be made mandatory for all new mining projects to minimize environmental destruction and the worse impacts of climate change."