18th March 2024
The proposal to burn native forests to produce electricity has again reared its ugly head, this time seeking to capitalise on NSW's 'do what you want' approach to habitat clearing.
Verdant Earth is seeking to secure 850,000 tonnes of wood per year from forests and bush in the Hunter region, in order to restart Redbank Power Station as a biomass generator (the burning of wood and other organic matter for fuel).
The company has been making misleading claims to the media about the proposal, which if approved will lead to large scale habitat loss across the Hunter region.
The Environmental Impact Statement for the project, currently available for public exhibition, also contains a range of deceptive and misleading claims, in particular that the proposal would "help decarbonise the electricity system" and "be ecologically sustainable".
The Nature Conversation Council of NSW, the state's leading environmental advocacy organisation, vehemently refutes both claims, and is calling on the NSW Labor Government to deliver on their election commitment and disallow the burning of native vegetation for electricity.
"It's extremely concerning that this polluting project is again rearing its head, and has progressed to the public exhibition stage" NCC CEO Jacqui Mumford said today.
"It took a dedicated community campaign to stop them trying to use native forest timber, despite the clear health, environmental and climate impacts. Now they're back with a new plan to burn native forest by taking advantage of widely criticised land clearing rules.
"They seem to have decided that calling the wood "invasive native species" makes it more appealing to the public. As always with this company, what they are saying simply doesn't stack up.
"There are barely any "invasive native species" in the greater Sydney, Hunter & Coastal regions, certainty not enough to run a power plant.
"Instead, the substance of this proposal is to burn native forests, bush, grasses and regenerated paddocks that landholders wish to clear and have deemed "invasive" without oversight.
"NSW Labor has had a longstanding commitment to close the National Party's loophole that allows burning of native vegetation for electricity. So far, they have not acted upon this commitment.
"We urge the government to close this loophole, deliver on their commitment and provide certainty for industry and our forests".
Statements attributable to Jacqui Mumford, NCC CEO.
On Carbon Emissions.
Verdant incorrectly claims that because trees sequester carbon when they grow, burning them is 'net zero'. However;
Burning green wood chips emits 50% more CO2 per megawatt hour of energy produced than burning coal. See further research here
The proposal is to use biomass from land that has been cleared, not in forests that are going to regrow.
Even if the forests did regrow, logged forests store far less carbon than old growth forests, and they can take hundreds of years to sequester the carbon the logged trees stored.
"Verdant Earth been trying to claim that woodfire power is "green" or "net zero" since they purchased the mothballed Redbank coalfired power station.
"How many times are we going to have to show that Biomass (the burning of wood for fuel) is not a net zero energy source.
"It generates more emissions per megawatt hour of energy than coal, dives habitat clearing and deforestation, and undermines investment in genuinely clear energy technology.
"If Verdant energy really wants to provide clean energy they should invest in proven technologies like wind and solar, rather than trying to burn wood and claim it's carbon negative."
On the ecological impact.
Verdant energy is seeking to exploit a loophole introduced by the former government that allows landholders to self-assess the ecological value of a piece of land, and then clear it with little to no oversight (see below). The NSW government is currently reviewing these laws.
"Since these changes were introduced in 2016, habitat clearing rates on freehold land have tripled, with an area 4x the size of Newcastle lost each year.
"Habitat clearing on freehold land is now the biggest cause of environmental loss in NSW, with 50 million trees and almost 100,000 hectares lost each year.
It has labelled "the main threats to the survival of species" in the most recent NSW State of the Environment Report
"This proposal will incentivise the clearing of even more habitat in the hunter region, further devastating fragmented and at-risk forest ecosystems".
The amount of biomass needed to power a power plant is massive - 850 000 tonnes is more woodchips that the entire native forest logging industry produced in NSW.
The negative impacts on nature will be massive, with thousands of hectares of native forests and bush being cleared. The proposal acknowledges that logging and chipping will occur across a 300 km radius of the facility.
Statement ends
