Stop subsidising deforestation and land-grabbing for biomass and bioliquid electricity

Open letter to the UK and Scottish Governments[i] relating to the Renewables Obligation Banding Consultation

We call upon the UK and Scottish Governments to stop subsidies for electricity from biomass and bioliquids (i.e. agrofuels) which mean more land-grabbing, logging and industrial tree plantations worldwide.

Under the Renewables Obligation, the UK and Scottish Government are offering generous subsidies  for burning unlimited amounts of wood, most of it imported, as well as agrofuels for electricity.  Although the UK Government has proposed to cap the amount of subsidies for electricity from agrofuels, that cap would still translate into a minimum of110,000 hectares of new plantations, most likely oil palm plantations in the global South.

The scale of the UK’s biomass plans: The UK Government wishes to see biomass generating up to 50TWh by 2020. This would require over 50 and possibly over 60 million tonnes of wood being burned in UK power stations each year, compared to a total UK wood production of less than 10 million tonnes annually. This figure is likely to escalate, as the unlimited subsidies are likely to attract more investment from companies.  By comparison, total EU wood pellet imports were 11 million tonnes last year.[ii]

At present, most UK wood imports come from North America, as well as from Scandinavia, the Baltic States and Russia, contributing to more logging and more forest and biodiversity destruction in those regions as well as releasing large amounts of carbon as a result.  Companies are increasingly looking to source wood from industrial tree plantations in Southern countries, too, for example from Brazil and Ghana.  Both directly and indirectly, the vast new demand for wood require an expansion of industrial tree plantations and thus more land-grabbing, more destruction of forests and grasslands and more depletion and pollution of soils and freshwater.  This poses a further threat to the rights and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples, forest-dependent peoples and small farmers.

Agrofuels for electricity in the UK: The UK proposes to burn 400,000 tonnes of bioliquids burned in UK power stations, which, if they were run on palm oil alone (by far the cheapest bioliquid) would require 110,000 hectares of land to be converted to plantations. Experience in Germany and Italy shows that palm oil is by far the most likely type of agrofuel to be burnt in power stations.  This will mean yet more landgrabbing, human rights abuses and carbon emissions from deforestation.

Sustainability standards for biomass and bioliquids: The UK government insists that it can source biomass and bioliquids  “sustainably” and as such proposes to introduce biomass “sustainability standards” from 2013. For agrofuels, EU standards already apply to renewable electricity subsidies in the UK.

Agrofuel and proposed biomass sustainability standards are grossly inadequate: Above all, they do not address the inherently unsustainable nature of the new demand for wood and vegetable oil being created, on top of an already vastly unsustainable demand for both in the UK and across Europe. Standards ignore all indirect impacts from biomass and agrofuels, as well as all impacts on communities, human rights, the right to food, soil and water.  What’s more, the carbon savings requirements for biomass and bioliquids under the criteria are a false target, as the methodology by which carbon emissions are calculated wrongly assumes that burning bioenergy is carbon-neutral. And there will not even be any independent auditing or verification of companies’ claims.

No subsidies for biomass or bioliquids electricity: By driving up the demand and the global price for wood and energy crops such as palm oil through subsidies (called Renewable Obligation Certificates or ROCs), the UK’s policy on industrial biomass and bioliquids is set to increase land grabbing and speculation for tree plantations, expand destructive logging, speed up the conversion of biodiverse native forests to monoculture tree plantations, and worsen climate change. The government must show it caresabout people and planet by investing in clean and genuine renewable energy solutions that do not adversely affect the global south.

We therefore call upon the United Kingdom to scrap all support measures for biomass and bioliquids and to focus on cutting the demand for energy, including through investment in energy efficiency and home insulation and focussing support on genuinely renewable and sustainable energy technologies instead.

Signed by:

• ADP (Amics de Palanques) , Spain
• Africa-Europe Faith & Justice Network (AEFJN), Belgium
• AFRICANDO, Spain
• Afrika-Europa Network, Netherlands
• Agencia de Desarrollo Local, Argentina
• AmazÚnia Assemblea de Solidaritat, Spain
• American Environmental Health Studies Project, US
• ATTAC EspaÒa, Spain
• Biofuelwatch, UK/US
• Biomass Accountability Project, Massachusetts, US
• Breathe Clean Air Group, UK
• Buckeye Forest Council, Ohio, US
• Bushwacker Wholefoods, UK
• Campaign Against Climate Change, UK
• CAPPA-Ecological Justice, Indonesia
• Carmelitas Descalzas de Olza, Spain
• Center for Biological Diversity, US
• CESINSAD, Colombia
• CISP – Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei Popoli, Italy
• COECOCEIBA-Friends of the Earth Costa Rica, Costa Rica,
• Colectivo de Ex Detenidas Desaparecidas “Carmen Soler” AsociaciÛn HIJOS PY, Paraguay
• ComisiÛn de DDHH de Paraguayos Residentes en Buenos Aires,Argentina
• Comite Oscar Romero, Spain
• Concerned Citizens of Franklin County, Massachusetts, US
• Consejo de Organizaciones de MÈdicos y Parteras IndÌgenas Tradicionales por la Salud
• Comunitaria en Chiapas, Mexico
• Corporate Europe Observatory, Netherlands
• Dachverband Kulturpflanzen- und Nutztiervielfalt e.V., Germany (gura@dinse.de)
• Dogwood Alliance, US
• Down to Earth, UK
• Earth 3000, Germany
• Earthpeoples
• Ecological Society of the Philippines, Philippines
• Econexus, UK
• Ecoportal, Argentina
• Eco Sitio, Argentina
• Edinburgh 350, UK
• Elephant Family, UK
• Espacio Bristol-Colombia, UK
• Forest Monitor, UK
• Forum ÷kologie & Papier, Germany
• Friends of the Siberian Forest, Russia
• Fundacion del Rio, Nicaragua
• Global Forest Coalition
• Green Delaware, US
• Grupo Autoayuda Los Andes, Germany
• Healthy Dubois County, US
• INCOMINDIOS, Switzerland
• Institut f¸r angewandten Regenwaldschutz/Regenwald-Institut. e.V., Germany
• Irish Doctors Environmental Association, Ireland
• Kalpavriksh, India
• Keep Our Island Clean, Hawaii, US
• Labour,Health and Human rights Development Centre, Nigeria
• LevegQ Munkacsoport (Clean Air Action Group), Hungary
• Les Amis de la Nature et des Jardins (ANJ), DR Congo
• Movimiento Nacional de Victimas,M.N.V., Paraguay
• National Association of Professional Environmentalists (Friends of the Earth Uganda, NAPE), Uganda
• No North Blyth Biomass Power Station, UK
• NOPE (No Oil Palm Energy), UK
• No Southampton Biomass, UK
• North East Peoples Alliance, India
• Oakland Institute, US
• Olympic Environmental Council, Washington, US
• Organizacion Fraternal Negra HondureÒa, OFRANEH, Honduras
• Philippine Initiative for Conservation of Environment and the People, Philippines
• Port Talbot Residents Against Power Stations, UK
• Preserve Pepeekeo Health and Environment, Hawaii, US
• PTAirwatchers Port Townsend, WA, USA
• Reforest the Earth, UK
• Regenbogenkreis, Germany
• Rettet den Regenwald e.V., Germany
• Salva la Selva, Spain
• Save Americas Forests, US
• Second Chance Foundation, US
• Sobrevivencia / Friends of the Earth Paraguay
• Society for Threatened Peoples International
• Timberwatch Coalition, South Africa
• Umweltinstitut M¸nchen e.V. , Germany
• Westflische Gesellschaft f¸r Artenschutz e.V. (WGA, Westphalian Society for Conservation), Germany
• Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy, Georgia, US
• World Rainforest Movement
• World Temperate Rainforest Network

Renewables Obligation: No to subsidies for destructive biomass and biofuel electricity

Please take part in two simultaneous email actions and tell your MP and the government that renewable energy support should go to clean, sustainable real renewables, such as sustainably sited wind, solar and tidal energy, and not to destructive biomass and bioliquid electricity.

If you have more time and can visit your MP’s surgery to discuss the government’s renewables electricity policy, this could be particularly effective.

Please note: For those living in Scotland, there is a separate Scottish consultation on the Renewables Obligation. You can respond to the Scottish consultation here.

The government believes it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by providing finance to renewable energy technologies through subsidies called Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) . As well as providing support for clean technologies like wind farms, ROCs also finance electricity from biomass and bioliquids, which have been shown to increase greenhouse gas emissions, cause deforestation, and worsen air quality locally.

The sourcing of biofuels and biomass from overseas has been widely implicated (directly and indirectly) in human rights abuses – including the forced eviction of people from their land and inhumane treatment of workers. The Renewables Obligation also subsidises the incineration of waste, which can be derived from fossil fuels, thus worsening air quality and discouraging recycling.

The Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change is currently consulting on the level of support to be given from April 2013 to all types of electricity classed as renewable, including from biomass and bioliquids. They propose to continue to support biomass on an unlimited scale – even more than at present as far as co-firing of biomass with coal is concerned. They also propose to support the burning of up to 400,000 tonnes of bioliquids per year (on top of the large-scale use of biofuels for transport). If all this bioliquid were palm oil – a realistic prospect given that this is by far the cheapest vegetable oil – then 110,000 hectares of new oil palm plantations would be needed.

The Renewable Obligation Scheme is financed through money taken from our fuel bills, so it is OUR MONEY that is being spent. If things stay as they are, it will cost us up to £3 billion every year by 2020 to fund this dirty, false solution at the expense of people and the planet.

Enough is enough: if the UK is to hold itself out as a world leader in providing solutions to the climate crisis and respecting human rights, it must stop spending our money on these false solutions.

Instead, it must focus on the true solutions: curbing our energy consumption by investing in home insulation schemes and in better public transport networks, and by promoting genuine and sustainable renewables such as appropriately sited wind, wave, and solar energy. Germany for example has already installed 17 GW of solar PV (250 times the UK), and is forecasted to have nearly 30 GW in 2020, whereas DECC is suggesting the UK will have up 6 GW of biomass by 2020, and only 2.6 GW of solar PV.

Please contact your MP today to ask him or her to raise the issues with Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and to vote against the proposals when they come to the House of Commons in early 2012.

It would be very helpful if you could copy any correspondence you may get back from your MP to biofuelwatch@ymail.com

Please personalise your letter to your MP if at all possible – and if you can visit your MP to talk about your concerns, that could be particularly effective. More background information on ROCs..

Dear [name],

I am writing to express my concern that through the Renewables Obligation Order, money from my fuel bill provides finance for generating electricity from biomass, bioliquids, and waste incineration, supporting companies involved in activities that are environmentally destructive and which damage human rights. If the anticipated expansion of bio-electricity materialises, annual subsidies of up to £3bn will be paid in 2020 to generating companies.

Under the current consultation on the Renewables Obligation Banding Review, DECC proposes to continue to finance biomass electricity on an unlimited scale, and also to provide finance for up to 400,000 tonnes of bioliquids to be burnt in each year in power stations, despite the evidence that biomass, bioliquids, and waste incineration are highly damaging for people and the planet. The questions in the consultation focus on economic factors alone and ignore all sustainability impacts.

In particular, I have the following concerns:

- Increased carbon dioxide emissions: unlike wind and solar, biomass and bioliquid electricity results in higher not lower carbon emissions. Emissions from burning biomass are around 50% higher than those from burning coal per unit of energy. The Committee on Climate Change has expressed concern that the large scale use of biomass electricity would hinder rather than help the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy.

- A threat to health: biomass and bioliquids produce significant levels of local air pollution affecting health in this country, as well as black carbon (soot) which accelerates polar ice melt. Per unit of energy, biomass burning produces similar levels of air pollution as coal burning – but even higher levels of nitrogen dioxide and small particulates which are linked to respiratory and heart diseases. The Environmental Audit Committee recently found that the Government is already putting thousands of UK lives at risk by not adequately addressing air quality problems, and the European Environment Agency has just reported on air quality noting with concern the increasing use of wood burning in Europe.

- A threat to food production: the great majority of biomass and bioliquids used to generate electricity will continue to be imported. The experience with transport biofuels is that land, water, and farming capacity (land and labour) is diverted from food production. Food shortages mean hunger, displacement and reduced life chances for people in the Global South.

- Human rights abuses: the production of biofuels and biomass overseas is associated with human rights abuses, land grabs, rainforest deforestation, malnutrition, soil & water pollution. Yet the sustainability criteria proposed by the UK on biomass do not even recognise the need to protect human rights.

- An inefficient source of electricity: biomass power generation is a highly inefficient process. Up to 75% of the energy available in the biomass is wasted as heat.

- Waste incineration a false solution: The energy generated by incinerating waste is a small proportion of that which would be saved by recycling and reducing the same materials, while causing emissions of a particularly large range of dangerous toxins. Under EU legislation, energy from fossil-fuel derived waste is not renewable, so including it into the Renewables Obligation may even contravene EU law. For more background information and references about the above, please see www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2011/rocs_impacts .

I would ask you to:

1. Share the concerns about Renewable Obligation Certificates for bioliquids, biomass and waste with Chris Huhne during the consultation, including the concerns about sustainability impacts having been entirely ignored in the consultation.

2. Please sign Early Day Motion 2428 about Biomass and Bioliquids for Electricity Generation.

3. Please call for a debate on the issue and a full parliamentary vote.

4. Vote against ROCs for biofuels, biomass and waste incineration if the opportunity rises.

The government should re-direct funds earmarked for bio-electricity towards curbing energy consumption, and to supporting genuinely sustainable renewable energy solutions such as appropriately sited wind, tidal and solar energy.

I look forward to your response and to seeing correspondence on this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Action 2: Email the UK Dept of Energy and Climate Change (UK and non UK residents)

TO: robr@decc.gsi.gov.uk

Consultation about the Renewables Obligation Banding Review 11D/876

I am responding to the Consultation on the Renewables Obligation Banding Review. I call on DECC to remove ROCs for bioliquids, biomass and waste incineration.

The Banding Review is not fit for its purpose – One of the primary aims of the banding review is to ‘contribute to the effective delivery of wider energy and climate change goals to 2050, including Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions reductions, decarbonising of the UK grid and energy security’. The consultation does not, however, compare the carbon emitted by different renewable technologies.
Unlike the other renewables under review, bioliquids and biomass –
* Increase carbon emissions rather than reducing them. Biomass electricity produces 50% more carbon emissions than coal. Bioliquids produce more GHG emissions than fossil fuels.
* Produce black carbon (a significant global warming agent) that adversely affects polar ice caps.
* Lead to deforestation and other ecosystem destruction releasing further carbon emissions.
* Rely on imported feedstock from land overseas which is not ‘renewable’ or provide energy security.

The scope of the Banding Review is narrow and inadequate. The review only addresses economic factors and ignores sustainability impacts when the Secretary of State is required to do so. The review specifically fails to consider the well-known issues associated with industrial scale bioenergy, i.e.:

* Human rights abuses, including land grabs.
* The effect on food security and food sovereignty
* Biodiversity loss.
* Adverse effects on soil and water health.
* Pesticide poisoning of livestock and people.
* Threats to health from local air pollution. Biomass burning produces similar levels of air pollution as coal burning, with even higher levels of nitrogen dioxide and small particulates.

The consultation is prejudicial to the outcome of the review. The Foreword by the Secretary of State makes the assumed and preferred role of biomass clear: ‘maximise deployment of the cheapest renewable technologies, such as coal-to-biomass conversions and co-firing.’
The review ignores or contradicts other findings and guidance:

* The Committee on Climate Change has expressed concern that the large scale use of biomass electricity would hinder rather than help the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy and that there is no place for it after 2020 due to concerns about high carbon emissions, low conversion efficiency and security of feedstock due to lack of global land.

* The Environmental Audit Committee recently found that the Government is not adequately addressing air quality problems, and the European Environment Agency’s 9 November 2011 report on air quality noted with concern the increasing use of wood burning in Europe.

* The consultation has been published before the UK Bioenergy Strategy report – expected by the end of 2011 – has assessed the sustainability and CO2 impacts of bioenergy.

Biomass power generation is a highly inefficient process. Up to 75% of the energy available in the biomass is wasted as heat. This is contrary to requirements in the EU Renewable Energy Directive and the draft Energy Efficiency Directive.

In a time of austerity measures and cuts to public services it is unacceptable in my view to commit up to £3b of public money per year to fund bioelectricity when this will exacerbate climate change, and deprive truly low-carbon renewable energy of needed support.

Yours faithfully,

At present the level of subsidy offered to electricity production from bioliquids from “fuel crops” is 2 ROCs per megawatt hour produced (the same level of subsidy given to off-shore wind), but this subsidy was not guaranteed for the foreseeable future (grandfathered). The consultation suggests dropping the subsidy to 1.5 ROCs until 2015, then to 1.4 ROCs, however the proposal is that these subsidies would be grandfathered, guaranteed, beyond that. You can read more here.

We will be producing a more thorough analysis of this and a guide to how to take part in the consultation soon. For now, we need to send a very clear message to DECC that subsidising industrial biofuel and biomass is dangerously unsustainable and socially and environmentally destructive.

Please join us in a protest outside DECC this Saturday, 22 October, starting at 12:00

Where:  DECC – Department of Energy & Climate Change, 3 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2AW. Nearest tube stations, Embankment & Charing Cross

When: Saturday 22nd October, 12.00 noon

More details here

Now is the time for action. If you can’t make it on Saturday, then please try to come to the next NOPE meeting, on Monday 7th November (details to follow next week) when we’ll be discussing this further.

www.nope.org.uk

Where:  DECC – Department of Energy & Climate Change, 3 Whitehall Place, SW1A 2AW. Nearest tube stations, Embankment & Charing Cross.

When: Saturday 22nd October, 12.00 noon

Who is the protest for? – for anyone concerned about the environment and social justice.

Why: The protest coincides with a DECC public consultation on Renewable Obligation Certificates – ROCs, which are subsidies for ‘renewable electricity’. Yet instead of rewarding only true renewable energy, such as sustainable wind, tidal and solar power, a large and growing share of ROCs goes to biomass (wood) and biofuel power stations – such as the proposed biofuel power station at Portland Port. Those are paid for by all of us, through a surcharge on our fuel bills. At a time when health, education, social welfare and environmental programmes are being cut drastically, the government is planning to reward biomass and biofuel power stations with £3 billion a year!

Biomass and biofuel production causes deforestation and adversely affects the climate, food sovereignty and human rights. Nearly all of the biomass and biofuels burned in UK power stations will be imported from countries including Indonesia, Brazil, Ghana or Kenya. Burning biomass and biofuel causes air pollution causing health problems for those who live nearby. This protest will show DECC that people don’t want to subsidise bioenergy.

Corporations like Drax, one of Europe’s biggest climate change contributors, are lobbying DECC to increase their profits from burning the biosphere. If UK citizens who pay for ROCs tell DECC yes to true renewable power from wind, wave, tidal, solar & geothermal and no to bioenergy we can stop this destructive industry overnight.

Let’s have people power instead of plant power!

Bring a friend, your banners and placards to the Department of Environment & Climate Change on the 22nd.

Please click here to download a leaflet for the event.

Having spent the night under canvas, there was an early start the next morning for a day designed to draw maximum attention to the local campaign against the proposed biofuel power station at Portland Port. Winding their way down the hill, with music and bells ringing, the cyclists got to Victoria Square roundabout, circled round it a few times then rode up onto it and occupied the space, with the intention of staying there all day. Victoria Square was chosen as the focus for the day of action for two reasons; 1) it’s a place everyone has to pass if they are coming or going from Portland and 2) it’s sponsored by biofuel-backers Portland Port.

The roundabout quickly became an action HQ, with tents, banners and signs going up, many of them made there and then with materials donated from nearby houses and businesses. The messages ranged from concerns about local pollution to rainforest deforestation, from land-grabs to cuts of essential local services. Some were tongue-in-cheek, with the well-known dolphin hedge statue getting a makeover sign that read “Dolphins in solidarity with rainforest species”. All day vehicles going by beeped their horns, waved and gave the thumbs up to those on the roundabout. People from Portland came and went throughout the day, giving support and encouragement as well as brining food and hot drinks. The cyclists also took the opportunity to run workshops and give talks about grassroots and community action, consensus decision-making and more. By the end of the day, thousands of people had passed by, many of whom might not have know about the ongoing struggle against the biofuel plant.

Things moved from Chiswell to Eastern, with an evening event at the St Georges Centre, where people from Bristol met and talked with people from Portland, with each community facing the threat of a biofuel power station from the same company, W4B. Having made new local alliances, we were treated to a live link-up with an activist in Columbia who is working with members of the community in Las Pavas, who have lived and worked on the land for generations and are being removed at gunpoint by hired militia in order to meet growing demand for land for palm oil plantations. We were left in no doubt that whole communities are loosing everything to this unscrupulous industry and that they were resisting them as best they could. When local planners in Portland refused to take into account the source of the fuel stock for the power station, the consequences where felt in communities like Las Pavas.

It was with a renewed sense of purpose and commitment that we said goodbye to our visitors on Thursday morning, and we hope that we’ll be supporting each other in the months and years ahead as we say No Oil Palm Energy and NOPE to Industrial Biofuel!

The students and campaigners from across Britain have put the biofuels protest in Portland at the heart of their ride because of its national significance on so many issues. One of the group, Claire, has spent the last two years living in Colombia working with human rights groups and peasant farmer organisations who have been denouncing the impact of palm oil on communities and forests there.

The group are inviting Portlanders to join them for a day of action on biofuels, starting at 11am at the Victoria Square roundabout. There will be activities throughout the day, culminating in an event at 7pm at the St George’s Centre in Reforne, which will include a live linkup with affected communities in Colombia as they talk about how people’s lives, including their own, are affected by the massive expansion of palm oil and how people are resisting it. This will be followed by discussion and the chance to send personal messages or pictures to those resisting plantations in Columbia.

We think this is shocking at a time when funding is being pulled from such vital services for local people. It is also incomprehensible that a government that wants to establish its green credentials would let this happen. Until the decision on the subsidies is made in July, we think it’s important to let the powers that be know what we could do with £11million a year to benefit Portland and Weymouth, rather than fill the coffers of a private company.

So we’re running a competition and invite you to answer the following question:

“What would you do with £11million per year to benefit Portland and Weymouth?”

Entries can be posted in the comments section below, or if you’d prefer you can email your answer to nooilpalmenergy@gmail.com

There is a prize of a 3 course meal for two people (excluding drinks) at The Blue Fish Café in Chiswell, for whichever suggestion (funny or serious) we like the best*.

Good luck!

*You can enter as many times as you like. The closing date is 12th June 2011. Answers will be judged by the NOPE Steering Committee and their decision is final. There is no alternative to the prize on offer. The winner will be notified via email and must redeem their prize within 2 months.

W4B’s registered address is in a leafy residential road in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. NOPE produced a special leaflet which was delivered to hundreds of Bourne End residents on Valentines Day, asking them to “Have a heart for people and the planet” and write letters to W4B calling on them to abandon their plans for power stations fuelled by palm oil or any other biofuels.

The plans would see vast quantities of palm oil shipped from Indonesia to fuel the power stations in Portland and Bristol. The schemes have attracted widespread criticism from local residents as well as environmental and social justice groups. Locally there are significant concerns over increased levels of pollution, especially on Portland where thousands of people live and work on the top of the island, above the level of the smoke stack exhausts for the planned power station.

The company have stated that they will run the power station on fuel oil derived from palm fruit (stearin) shipped from Indonesia, with well over 100,000 tonnes expected to be used by the two plants. The problems with oil palm cultivation in Indonesia and Malaysia are well documented, causing widespread deforestation in some of the world’s most important and biodiverse forests. With demand for palm oil already pushing these fragile ecosystems to the brink of collapse, the additional demand created by biofuel power stations such as these could be fatal for the last remaining orangutans and other animals and people who live in and depend on the forests.

W4B are also touting and pursuing the commercial cultivation of Jatropha, a poisonous seed crop, to be a feed stock for the power stations in future. In parts of Africa and India, cultivating jatropha for biofuels is already taking productive agricultural land out of the hands of subsistence farmers and instead of providing food for local people it is now producing fuel, a practice that has been well documented and condemned by groups such as Friends of the Earth and Action Aid.

Please join us in urging W4B to axe their plans for industrial-scale bioenergy in Portland or anywhere else. Write polite letters to their registered address:

W4B Ltd.
Mendip House
Hawks Hill
Bourne End
Bucks
SL8 5LQ

Please join us on Monday 17 January 2011 from 7.30pm at the Blue Fish for a look back at a remarkable year and to plan how we will stop W4B in their tracks this year.

Within a month, NOPE had met, organised and planned their first big public protest. On cold and blustery Saturday at the end of February over 400 people gathered at the very highest point in Portland and  marched down through Fortuneswell and Castletown to the gates of Portland Port, where they rallied and declared the fight to stop a destructive, polluting palm oil power station had well and truly begun. Coverage on the BBC and ITV news, numerous local radio stations and in the Dorset Echo left no doubt as to the strength of local feeling on this issue.

Next up, on 7th April, was a public meeting in a packed Easton Hall. With standing room only, local residents listened as W4B MD Richard Gudgeon failed to convince the audience that his plans were anything but unsustainable and potentially detrimental to the health of local residents. Local politicians, residents who would find themselves living above the smoke stacks and representatives of groups advocating on behalf of those whose homes and environment would be decimated by demand for palm oil and jatropha for biofuels all made a compelling case for why biofuels are not green or sustainable and why power stations such as these should not be subsidised or granted planning permission.

Which was exactly the view taken by Bristol Council, who rejected W4Bs plans for a biofuel power station in Avonmouth earlier in the year. As in Portland there was fierce opposition to the plans from the public and environmental groups, yet W4B have shown they have no regard for what local people think or the harm their plans may cause to the environment and are forging ahead with an appeal in Bristol, ignoring the will of the council and the public.

May Day once again saw hundreds of NOPE protesters, this time marching through the busy streets of Weymouth. Passing through packed streets, thousands of leaflets were distributed and residents of Weymouth were alerted to the potential negative impacts to the town’s tourist trade by building a polluting power station in Portland. The march was preceded with a meeting between NOPE and Ed Miliband, then secretary of state for energy and climate change, who nodded in agreement when it was pointed out that subsidizing a form of “sustainable” energy production without first having a mechanism for accessing the sustainability of the fuel stock was putting the cart before the horse. At the Weymouth march there were speakers from the Green Party, People First, Liberal Democrats (all of whom have been part of NOPE from the very beginning) and Labour.

The last protest of the year was a national day of action in association with the Campaign Against Climate Change, Biofuelwatch and Food Not Fuel, who all recognised the important battleground that Portland has become and the enormous success we’ve had at galvanising local support and action. An incredible day began with a march that stretched the length of beach road and ended with hundreds of buckets of sand being dumped at the gates of Portland Port, blockading it for over an hour, as speakers and participants drew the clearest possible line in the sand, while Seize The Day played protest songs.

The year ended with an incredible victory in neighbouring Purbeck, where NOPE supported an application for a wind farm which the council provisionally passed on the 30th November. NOPE support truly green, clean energy from wind, sun and sea so were delighted with this positive decision for real renewable energy in Dorset.

W4B have stated their intention to go ahead with their plans to build a biofuel power station in Portland in 2011, but there are hundreds of us who stand ready to do all we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Please join us!

Sign-up to receive updates by entering your email address in the box on the right, come to our meeting at the Blue Fish on Monday 17th January and join the 1473 people who support us on Facebook.