Green issues, climate change and local resident opposition are hardly unique to LBA. Unless there is a unilateral, UK wide policy of surpressing demand for air travel then making judgements from a climate change / green perspective about one airport in isolation is pointless. The demand will simply displace to other airports. Time and time again we've seen that if you squeeze the balloon at LBA (delays to runway extension, night flying caps etc) the demand pops back up at MAN.
So the choice is to either artifically "cap" demand at LBA through some sort of planning mechanism - either refusing the terminal planning application or pegging passenger limits to road/bus/rail improvements - in which case the excess demand will have no choice but to displace West across the M62.
Or, you give the airport the freedom to operate as a commercial business and you give the airlines and passengers free choice about where they want to fly from. If LBA is commercially not viable due operational issues or too troublesome to reach from a passenger perspective, then the growth won't materialise anyway.
In truth, the verdict of the planning office was not one of rejection, it was one of broad support - as reported in some of the less tabloid interpretations of last week's meeting. They obviously want more detail in terms of the transport support the airport will provide and no doubt they will want to hear what their colleagues elsewhere in the council will be doing too on the matter. It's probably a bit early at this stage to suggest there isn't a way forward with the matter.