Wood waste as eligible source for renewable energy

Hi folks,

Tony Windsor looks like he will be the crucial vote on whether burning forests for biomass is eligible as renewable energy under the Federal Renewable Energy Target.  He may need to vote on this as soon as today, or tomorrow.  At the moment, he seems to be undecided.

A letter that Rob Oakeshott sent around to all MPs this week, argued that native forests should be available for use as biomass.   He has put forward a disallowance motion that will remove protection for native forests from being burnt in power stations.

Do you have time to give Windsors office a call today, and ask him NOT to support Mr Oakeshotts’ disallowance motion.  Most importantly, recent scientific evidence shows that our temperate forests are extraordinary carbon stores and that it takes hundreds of years to replace all of the carbon that is lost when they are logged.  Destroying forests and burning them can never be a good outcome for the climate or the environment.  Calling native forest biomass renewable will displace other genuinely renewable technologies.

Most importantly, industries like woodchip and native forest biomass do not use ‘waste’ lying on the forest floor.  That is a complete furphy.  It is not and never will be economically viable to collect tree branches and heads from the forest floor and to transport it to sawmills.  To the timber industry, ‘waste’ is any tree that doesn’t produce a sawlog product.  To them, most of the trees in a forest are waste, and it is those trees that will be cut if native forest biomass goes ahead.  It will put enormous pressure on our forests, increasing the intensity of logging towards clear-felling in places where it doesn’t already occur, and entrenching it elsewhere.

The best number to call would be at Parliament – (02) 6277 4722.  Ask to speak to an adviser working on the biomass issue if possible.  The email address is Tony.Windsor.MP@aph.gov.au

By: Carmel Flint