Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 21 October 2024
Protest against ALP backed plan to burn forests in Tasmanian cement plant
A protest is underway at Cement Australia’s Railton plant as part of International Day of Action against Big Biomass. Bob Brown Foundation is calling on the company to halt plans to burn thousands of tonnes of wood sourced primarily from native forests at Cement Australia’s Railton plant.
The day of action is organised internationally by the Biomass Action Network, with the message “Bioenergy Destroys Biodiversity”.
BBF has been joined by the Coordinator of Campaigns for the Biomass Action Network Peg Putt, a former leader of the Tasmanian Greens.
Controversially, the Australian government has granted $53 million for the plan to burn wood and old tyres as a so-called ‘clean’ energy solution to substitute coal, yet burning wood emits equivalent or more emissions than coal and other genuine renewables and clean energy sources were not even considered for the project.
“Transition to burning forest biomass is an outrageously backward move that relies on continued logging destruction of our precious native forest ecosystems and their wildlife and the stupid thing is it doesn’t even reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s double trouble,” said Peg Putt.
“It beggars belief that the Albanese government have showered $53 million on this wacky plan without even considering genuine, renewable energy options in a rush to fund something that locks in broadscale logging of native forests for an ongoing wood supply to burn,” said Peg Putt.
“The world needs forests to survive the current and impending climate and biodiversity crises, incinerating habitat trees for fuel is an outrage and a false economy and it must not happen here at Railton,” said Erik Hayward, Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaigner.
“Cement Australia’s plan, funded by the Labor government proposes to chip and burn not only native forests, but burn tyres in the process to fuel their kilns, its archaic in a global climate emergency,” said Erik Hayward.
“If Cement Australia proceeds with this forest burning project at Railton, we will be ramping up our campaign and we put this company on notice, forests must not be used for this outrageous proposal,” said Erik Hayward.
“We’re standing up to protest the appalling impacts of biomass energy,” said Peg Putt.
“Tasmania can do without adopting this dirty, destructive energy that is causing environmental destruction and polluting communities around the world,” said Peg Putt.
Ben Marshall
October 21, 2024 at 13:06
Here is a clear-headed, non-partisan link that summarises the most basic issues around biomass energy to help decide whether it’s worse than coal or not. In brief, the Bob Brown Foundation is extremely likely to be correct about the very negative impacts of using biomass for energy – even in the most unlikely event that the biomass itself is sourced ‘sustainably’.
“Sustainable” Timber Tasmania’s practice of bulldozing native habitat for pulp, and a small amount of wild timber, and replacing that thriving forest with scorched earth burning followed by seed bombing monocultural eucalypts in which very little habitat is possible, is already deeply unsustainable, regardless of the aggressive and clueless bellowing of ‘jobs n growth’ from Liberal-Labor.
And so, as Liberal-Labor demand an accelerated expansion of native forest logging, against all economic and environmental evidence, it’s guaranteed that Sustainable Timber Tasmania will be directed to ‘value add’ by converting wild forest to saleable ‘biomass energy’.
The Bob Brown Foundation, and others, are right to call out biomass as a massive step in the wrong direction, but they will not be heard by those in politics who either don’t care, or who choose not to accept climate science .. or any other.