biofuelwatch: VO-Gen alert June 2009

This alert is for residents local to the proposed power station in Newport. An alternative for other UK residents is available here.

Urgent: Object to VO-Gen Energy's plans to build a virgin vegetable-oil power station in Newport

Background

A company called Vogen is planning to build a new electricity power station at the Alexandra Dock, Newport, South Wales. Newport City Council is now deciding whether to give planning permission.

It will burn 40,000 tonnes of biofuel (vegetable oil) a year, including virgin vegetable oil and palm oil. The power station will lead to increased local air pollution, global climate change, rainforest destruction, extinction of animals in the rainforest, world food shortages and human rights abuses.

Local residents have not been consulted on this issue.

Please send an email objection to the Vogen planning application to planning@newport.gov.uk. You can use the form below for this. Please edit the text and subject line in order to make it more personal.

If you decide to send a planning objection by some other means, please include the planning reference number 09/0195 and your full postal address.

There is further information below the form.

Dear Sir/Madam

subject

Planning reference number 09/0195. I am writing to object to the plans for Vogen to build a power station at the Alexandra Dock in Newport. Local residents have not been consulted adequately on this issue and I ask that you hold a consultation or public meeting to ensure they are properly informed. I object to the power station on the following grounds: * Air quality: My family and I could suffer health problems because of the exhaust fumes. Burning vegetable oil emits nitrogen oxides and small particulates which can cause breathing problems or make them worse. It can also cause other illnesses. * Biofuels make climate change worse: The power station will be burning biofuels on an industrial scale. This will include pure, unrecycled vegetable oil and palm oil. Scientists have shown that industrial biofuels make climate change worse. Biofuels produce more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. Biofuels also lead to the destruction of forests, the "lungs of the world". This makes dangerous climate change more likely. Animals such as orangutans are put in danger of extinction and killed or injured when the forest is chopped down. Biofuels are a false green solution and I don’t want them being burned in Newport! * Biofuels cause food price rises and increase hunger: The power station in Newport will burn over 100,000 litres of vegetable oil a day, or 40,000 tonnes per year. If the oil is produced in this country it will need at least 10,000 hectares of farmland to grow the crops. This farmland could feed about 35,000 British people on a meat/veg diet. Losing this land means extra food imports, and more people in overseas countries could then go hungry. According to The World Bank, biofuels contribute up to 75% of world food price rises. We are feeling these price rises in Newport too! * Biofuels are linked to human rights abuses: The company building the power station have not promised to source their fuel from the UK. In Asia, Africa and South America, people are suffering human rights abuses and land evictions and going hungry because of biofuels. According to the United Nations, up to 60 million people are at risk of becoming biofuel refugees. Although Vogen have said they will source biofuels from accredited sources, the only accredited vegetable oil supplier is the RSPO (Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil). However, RSPO members are self regulating companies and many RSPO members are taking no steps to avoid the worst practices associated with the industry, such as large-scale forest clearance and taking land from local people without their consent. I therefore ask you to hold a consultation or meeting on this issue and to reject this planning application.
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Further information

If this power station is built:

Local air quality will get worse –Vegetable oil burning emits nitrogen oxides and small particulates linked to respiratory illnesses and heart problems.

It will contribute to climate change. Biofuel production releases more greenhouse gases through land conversion and chemical fertiliser use than the fossil fuels they replace.

It will make world food prices higher as vegetable oil will be used for electricity instead of food.

People in other areas of the world, like South-east Asia and South America could be displaced from their homes to allow the necessary vegetable oil plants to be grown.

It will NOT provide local residents with cheaper electricity.

So far there are no biofuel power stations in the UK although planning permission has been granted to build one in East London. In Germany, people living near their biofuel power stations suffer noise and smell, and at least one power station there has been refused planning permission.