Federal Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch has urged environmental groups to back the Tully Millstream Hydroelectric Scheme if a feasibility study says the far north Queensland project is viable.

Mr Entsch, chairman of the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia, has joined State Member for Hinchinbrook Andrew Cripps in calls for a feasibility study to see if the hydroelectric project, first suggested in the 1980s, can play a major role in powering the region.

A feasibility study was carried out by the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation in 1988, but the creation of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, in which part of the scheme would have been located, saw the project placed on the back burner.

Mr Entsch had hoped Federal Cabinet could have signed off on another feasibility study in mid-August, but those hopes were dashed as the Government was embroiled in the furore over MPs’ citizenship.

“If the feasibility study says the project stacks up, environmentalists can’t say we oppose, for example, the Adani coal mine and also oppose Tully Millstream,” Mr Entsch said.

“If they oppose both, it begs the question: what will they accept?

“The Tully Millstream project has the potential to provide an alternative to the increasing use of fossil fuels to provide electricity.

“It also has the potential to power 174,000 households and provide a serious power resource in far north Queensland.”

Mr Entsch said only one-quarter of the project would be within the World Heritage Area and three man-made dams already existed in that area.

He said he had urged Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and other federal MPs to look seriously at the proposal.