'NO' TO PALM OIL POWER STATION IN AVONMOUTH

10.23.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 9th Oct 2009

A plan to build 'Bristol's biggest power station' in Avonmouth is being strongly opposed by local campaigners.

W4B Renewable Energy have submitted plans to build a 50 MW biofuel power station in Avonmouth, which would burn up to 90 000 tonnes of vegetable oil, most likely palm oil imported from Indonesia.

A plan for a smaller plant was recently rejected by Weymouth & Portland Council, amidst concerns about the impact of biofuels in general and palm oil in particular on the climate, on forests and other ecosystems and on communities in the global South, as well as concerns over air pollution and public health in nearby areas. This was one of three similar planning applications recently rejected by local authorities.

"This would be terrible for Bristol, for communities in developing countries and for our shared environment" said Paul Harrod, Prospective Lib Dem MP for Bristol North West, which includes Avonmouth.

"This is not renewable energy. More than 22,000 hectares of oil palm plantations would be required to feed this one power station and even more land if other feedstock was used. The environmental cost of importing this palm oil is colossal, let alone the carbon emissions when it is harvested in the first place."

Mike Andrews, a former executive producer for the BBC Natural History Unit, based in Bristol, has seen for himself the devastating effect of deforestation caused by 'biofuel' plantations.

"It is a fallacy that biofuels are 'green' or cause less global warming than carbon fossil fuels.

"Biofuels are damaging because plants store less than 1% of the energy of the sun that shines on them. So energy is a very low-yield agricultural crop and the areas needed to provide fuel are enormous. Power companies burn the cheapest fuel - at present mostly palm oil. This is grown in tropical countries where tropical forest has to be cut down to give way for the plantations. The soils in countries like Indonesia are deep peat. When the forest is cleared by burning, not only the carbon in the trees goes up, but the carbon from the peat. A UN report says 98% of the rain forest in Indonesia will be degraded or cut down by 2022, to grow palm oil. The social costs are also appalling, whole communities of people are driven off their ancestral land by the big plantation companies."

"Bristol is the UK's Green Capital" said Paul Harrod. "Both the previous and current Council administrations have made great strides in increasing the amount of genuine renewable energy in our city.

"We need to send a clear message that we are only interested in the sorts of environmental technologies that reduce carbon emissions and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels.

"The proposed W4B plant would do neither."