The global trend is seeing native forests cut down to be burnt in electricity furnaces and termed ‘renewable power’. This further damages climate, natural carbon stores and our forests and wildlife.
May 28, 2015
The revised Renewable Energy Target (RET) currently before Parliament would provide a market for otherwise unsaleable timber, according to a document from Victoria’s state-owned forestry business, VicForests, obtained by the ABC. Environment Minister Greg Hunt introduced the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Bill yesterday. The legislation locks in the bipartisan deal for a new, lower, 2020 …
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May 28, 2015
Leaked business and corporate plans from Victoria’s state-owned forestry business, VicForests, reveal multi-million dollar taxpayer losses and logging operations in parts of the state that ‘are not commercial’. This is especially the case in East Gippsland, where weak demand for poor quality logs has made operations unprofitable over ‘many years’. The leaked ‘commercial in confidence’ …
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May 28, 2015
Leaked 3 year business plans from VicForests reveal multi-million dollar taxpayer losses. East Gippsland is especially ‘not commercial’. It’s been going on for years. ABC Radio National revealed the leaked ‘commercial in confidence’ documents also shows VicForests is keen to use native forests to generate electricity under the Renewable Energy Target, or RET. Environment Minister …
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May 27, 2015
1. If the senate allows the inclusion of ‘waste’ from native forest logging as a biomass fuel for biomass power in the RET, whole trees will be burnt for electricity in furnaces. The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) stated in the 2009 submission to the National Energy Policy Framework:‘wherever forests are managed under Commonwealth …
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May 15, 2015
The Abbott governments plan to define the burning of native forest logs in electricity generators as a ‘renewable energy’ under the planned RET scheme is under sustained attack from environment groups. “The ALP leader, Bill Shorten is also refusing to make a clear commitment that would ensure native forests will not be power station fodder …
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May 15, 2015
Environmentalist and campaigner Frances Pike explains why Australian native forests are currently facing their greatest threat and how you can make a difference. The so-called native forest “waste” that is the sticking point in current Renewable Energy Target negotiations is not sawdust, tree stumps or branches. If the industry gets its way it will be …
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May 10, 2015
It’s crazy! When the RET is supposed to be bringing emissions down, the Abbott government is prepared to increase them by burning the land’s greatest carbon stores – our forests – in electricity furnaces. This would have higher emissions than coal (per unit of energy produced – see illustration). It would take 200 years to …
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May 8, 2015
Our governments should take note: some US Senators are wanting a moratorium on use of bioenergy as renewable energy under their Clean Power Plan. They believe that by claiming biomass power plants that burn forest ‘waste’ emit zero emissions, it could undermine the ability of the Plan to reduce emissions from the power sector. Massachusetts has …
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May 8, 2015
The Federal Government and Opposition have reached agreement on a revised Renewable Energy Target (RET), but remain at odds over the energy sources to be included. The major parties have agreed to cut the target to 33,000 gigawatt hours (GWh), but Labor is objecting to the Government’s push to include native wood burning. The Government …
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May 8, 2015
THE clean energy sector is warning against investment-risking “messy” negotiations, after the government and Labor agreed in part to a pared-back renewable energy target. AFTER months of political stalemate, the two parties struck a deal on Friday to slash the target from 41,000GWh to 33,000 but bipartisanship on the entire package remains in doubt. The …
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