JULY 31, 2015: THE predictable extreme green tactic of mounting legal challenges to derail coal projects and stop the flow of jobs needs to be eliminated with a legal counter-offensive.I question the authority of those mounting court actions which currently hold seven Queensland projects to ransom, costing an estimated $1million a day in lost production.Who gives these self-styled guardians of the environment the authority to mount these court challenges which have been going on for more than two years?It has not been bestowed on them by the community; it’s self-imposed, and they should have no authority before the courts unless they are personally and directly affected by a project.When I return to Parliament, I will be raising this matter with the Prime Minister and the Attorney General as we need to seriously look at introducing laws to restrict Joe Blows off the street from taking projects to court.I totally agree with statements made today by Queensland Resources Council CEO Michael Roche regarding the battle against “environmental absolutism”.Mr Roche is calling on governments to come to grips with the fact that appeasing anti-resources activists will only achieve one result, and that is to drive the investors away from Australia.This is not about a balanced consideration of the worth of a project; the environmental activists are hell-bent on disruption and delay, and their favourite strategy is the lodgment of legal challenges against  mines, coal ports and rail links.Those directly affected by court action should continue to have access to legal challenges.If a CSG gas well is going in next to cane farms, every farmer in the vicinity, or their representative group, should be able to go to court and object to that drilling because those farmers are directly affected.But when court challenges come from organisations run out of Sydney, Brisbane or even Mackay for that matter; how are they directly affected by the Carmichael coal mine?For the sake of jobs, it’s time this rot stopped.