I'm not a lawyer, so I can speak with the freedom of ignorance here. I would go to court and would say that I was authorized to do this thing and that everybody understood—the people who permitted me understood—the extent of my activities and understood that there would be environmental degradation. The agency that was then on the hot seat would show up and say “We had no idea there would be this damage” and that they were never told. Of course they would say that. And therefore, would it function as an actual defence? Possibly it would, but not a good one, for sure, and it would be a very tortuous situation to find ourselves in.
On November 15th, 2010. See this statement in context.