Solid Energy and the country’s environmental watchdog are at loggerheads about the viability of proposed lignite developments in Southland.

Dr Jan Wright, the parliamentary commissioner for the environment, released a report today in strong opposition to large-scale lignite developments.

Both state-owned enterprise Solid Energy and the L&M Group are investigating lignite developments over thousands of hectares in Southland and Otago.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s report on mining in the conservation estate brings a welcome dose of sanity to the mining debate, Straterra CEO Chris Baker said today.

He commended Dr Jan Wright for presenting mining as an activity that should be and can be an environmentally responsible activity – and said that this concept was already well established.

The Electricity Commission last month stated the need to watch overseas developments before regulating smart meter installation in New Zealand, but this week's announcement that all UK households will have smart meters by 2020 was not welcomed by all industry players.

The UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change’s £8 billion ($NZ18.3million) scheme is designed to see 47 million meters installed in 26 million properties by 2020.

A report on land under the Department of Conservation estate with significant mining potential could be months away.

Energy and resources minister Gerry Brownlee's stocktake of schedule 4 land was initially due by October 30.

But a spokesman said this morning the report, by DOC and the Ministry of Economic Development (MED), could be "a little while away."

"We won't receive it for a number of weeks and haven't finalised the process that would follow."

Solid Energy has finally received a big tick for its environmental management at Stockton Mine.

Concerns were first raised in 1988, when the first parliamentary commissioner for the environment Helen Hughes was concerned about the transferral of coal mining licences to Coal Corporation – a new state-owned enterprise, now Solid Energy.

An investigation was recommended in 2006 over concerns including acid mine drainage.

Some of New Zealand’s conservation estate may be inadequately protected from mining activities and needs to be reviewed, says parliamentary commissioner for the environment Dr Jan Wright.

In a report on the environmental management of the Stockton Mine, released today, Dr Wright said Stockton, Solid Energy’s strip mine, was one of more than 100 operating under licenses granted before the Crown Minerals and Resource Management Acts.

From 111 mining licences under the old regime at least 55 include DOC land, which may be inadequately protected, she said.