What are OLOers opinions on this outfit ?

The EPA are constrained by their ideology. A good example of this, is feral pigs in national parks. Shooting and hunting with dogs are against the guiding principles of the EPA (possibly why ERM has tenure), and so it is forbidden. Of course, this works to the pigs advantage and numbers increase. There might or might not be a bloke fiddling about with a few traps in the more visible areas to make it look like something's being done. They cant really allow people to shoot, because somebody will shoot their foot off and sue the department.
Overall, a feelgood outfit that issues mining permits and dopey statements, in roughly equal measure.

I see the practice of controlled burns is back, thank God.

The lunacy of non-burning, following the deadly fires of 2009, which was promoted by government bureaucrats in the interests of environmental nazis and damn the house-owning electorate, has been overtruned by the royal commission

Now we need to see the EPA and DSE enforcing the common sense, instead of the warped interests of greenies

Which EPA jurisdiction are you referring to? QLD for example are out of touch whereas Vic are more progressive and commonsense but possibly over-favour industry in some respects.

TCM,
I'm in Nth Qld where the EPA considers digging out an area of ten ha is ok but when someone needs a 2 metre hole within 25 metres of the large excavation it requires an, quote, "impact study". This sort of mindlessness has zilch to do with environmental protection. It's all about job protection & justification for the EPA's.

I agree there is definitely a lot of job protection going on, both in QLD + VIC, and not so much environmental protection. I haven't had much to do with the other states.