MEDIA RELEASE
Conservation Groups Welcome Independent Planning Commission’s Rejection of Proposal to Increase Landclearing for Electricity
North East Forest Alliance and North Coast Environment Council welcome the IPC’s rejection of Verdant Earth's proposal to restart the closed coal-fired Redbank power station, using trees obtained from clearing more than 20,000 ha of land a year, to spew 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
On the September 15, the Independent Planning Commission refused the development application from Verdant Earth Technologies Ltd to restart the Redbank Power Station at Warkworth using biomass instead of coal tailings as fuel.
“Burning forests produces higher CO2 emissions than burning coal, so it is madness to replace coal with wood to generate electricity as it undermines our transition to a low carbon economy”, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.
“It is particularly galling that in this case the proponents claimed that burning 850,000 tonnes of biomass per annum would result in no CO2 emissions at all, when in fact the power-plant would release 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 through its smokestacks each year, thereby significantly increasing atmospheric carbon when we urgently need to be transitioning to non-polluting solar and wind power.
“This is compounded by the fact that the biomass was intended to be obtained by clearing native vegetation, which is contrary to the need to restore and increase native vegetation as it is the only means we have of removing carbon from the atmosphere at scale.
“The Independent Planning Commission rejected the proposal on the grounds that there had been no assessment of the environmental impact of increasing land clearing in western NSW from the current 6,635 ha per annum to over 20,000 ha per annum” Mr. Pugh said.
“It is madness in the midst of our current biodiversity and climate emergencies to contemplate cutting down the homes of a multitude of species and burning them to release more carbon into the atmosphere”, said Susie Russell from the North Coast Environment Council.
“This is the culmination of a six year community campaign against generating electricity by burning wood, and specifically this proposal that had initially proposed to take timber from north coast forests.
“The IPC meeting with stakeholders in Singleton last month received many presentations from both concerned locals, environment groups and biodiversity experts, critical of the proposal.
“They were proposing to clear land 600 kilometres from the power station, woodchip it, store it and then using B doubles, truck it to the Hunter Valley. There was no accounting for the emissions from any of that process which would have been fuel intensive. The whole project just didn’t stack up,” Ms Russell said.
The ALP’s 2024 NSW Labor Platform states:
3.112 NSW Labor recognises that burning timber and cleared vegetation for electricity is not carbon neutral and is neither clean or renewable energy, and therefore forms no part of a credible strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Labor will introduce legislation prohibiting the burning of any forests and cleared vegetation for electricity.
“We call upon the NSW Government to urgently implement their commitment to introduce legislation prohibiting the burning of any forests and cleared vegetation for electricity, to stop any repeat of this madness” Mr. Pugh said.
- North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) & North Coast Environment Council (NCEC) .
