[Huon Forests] Activists highlight burning forests threat in banner action

[jenny weber]

Activists highlight burning forests threat in banner action

Tasmanian forest activists have unfurled a banner over a prominent
Hobart city billboard to highlight the dangers of allowing forestry
companies to burn native forests for power generation.

The banner was dropped today over a billboard at the corner of
Bathurst and Elizabeth Streets. It reads "Ban Wood-fired Power". The
banner sends a clear message to governments and industry that the only
way to rule out the risks associated with burning our native forests
for power is an outright ban on this archaic practice.

Forestry Tasmania, Gunns Ltd and other forestry and mining industry
players are running a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to have
burning native forests for power installed as part of a false climate
change solution.

A plan released by the Forests and Forest Industry Council (FFIC)
calls for investments of over $300 million in wood fired power and
proposes burning over 1.1 million cubic metres of Tasmanian timber in
three power stations. There are currently three proposals for
wood-fired power stations in Tasmania: at the Southwood facility in
the Huon
Valley, at Circular Head in the North-West of the state and at Gunns
planned pulp mill in the Tamar Valley. Combined, these power stations
would consume many hundreds of thousands of tonnes of timber from
Tasmania’s high conservation value native forests.

The industry claims that these power stations would be a renewable
replacement for fossil fuel burning. However, recent, government
commissioned research from the United States shows unequivocally that
burning wood for energy will release as much carbon as burning coal,
and far more carbon than natural gas. (See: Manomet Center for
Conservation Sciences. Biomass Sustainability and Carbon Policy Study
Executive Summary. June 2010. available at
http://www.manomet.org/node/322)

In other words, if Australian governments capitulate to the industry
push for wood-fired power, it will worsen our chances of reaching
emissions reduction targets by 2050, rather than helping them.

Communities around the globe are now becoming more conscious of the
environmental and community impacts of burning forests for power. As
well as the intensive carbon emissions, burning forests for power
imposes public health risks, heightened impacts on native forests and,
as well as undermining investment in real renewable energies like wind
and solar.

Both the Labor and Liberal parties in Australia currently support the
perverse inclusion of native forest "wood waste" as a renewable fuel
source in the Renewable Energy Target legislation. This pits burning
native forest against real renewable like wind a solar. This subsidy
for a polluting and destructive industry must cease. Julia Gillard
must act immediately to remove "wood waste" from the register of
renewable fuels and legislate for a ban on the burning of native
forest for electricity generation.

Tasmanian residents can have their say on this crucial issue by
signing the electronic petition at:
http://210.8.42.131/view/EPetitions_TAS_Assembly/CurrentEPetitions.aspx?LIndex=2

For more information on wood fired power visit: www.huon.org