On Wednesday, shadow Environment Minister Mark Butler moved an amendment to the RET legislation on behalf of the Labor opposition, that would disqualify native forest biomass as an eligible fuel source for renewable energy credits in the legislation itself. The fate of the amendment will be decided on the cross bench in the Senate on …
The respected international think tank Chatham House has released part of a research paper which shows the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is wrong. This assumes burning trees and forests as biofuel for electricity is carbon neutral and therefore climate friendly. It’s a fairly obvious error to almost any thinking person. There …
Last week, the Gippsland environment group Goongerah Environment Centre (GEC) was shortlisted for the prestigious United Nations World Environment Day Awards in the Habitat Restoration and Biodiversity category. The announcement came as the Victorian government was threatening to prosecute GEC volunteers for exposing an illegal rainforest logging operation. Members of the East Gippsland group entered …
Tax-payer sponsored environmental demolition must end and VicForests must be relegated to history, is the message Environment East Gippsland is sending to the Victorian Government after the exposé that $5.5 million “Community Service Obligation” is funding public forest destruction annually in the region. “Environment groups are feeling vindicated across the state after decades of highlighting …
Logging in East Gippsland is not commercially viable and cutting down native forests across the region is racking up losses of up to $5.5 million a year, internal government documents reveal. A leaked briefing by Victoria’s Department of Treasury and Finance to the former Napthine government says East Gippsland logging is being cross-subsidised by profitable harvesting in the state’s Central Highlands. The Highlands logging has come …
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 …
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’ …
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 …
Groups like the Gippsland Environment Group and environmentalists like Ross Scott and health professionals like Dr. Jo McCubbin have been raising concerns about the mercury levels in fish in the Gippsland Lakes for many years. DELWP Media release A study to assess mercury levels in fish of the Gippsland Lakes will commence from tomorrow, followed …
An environmental group who discovered evidence of logging in a Gippsland rainforest has been threatened with prosecution. Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO) raised the alarm last month when they discovered trees had been ripped out in a protected area, in the Errinundra National Park But the State Government found there was insufficient evidence that VicForests had …
