biofuelwatch: VO-Gen alert May 2009

Please only take part in this alert if you live in the UK

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

Background

Energy company VO-Gen Energy Ltd has applied to Newport Council in South Wales to build a power station to run off virgin vegetable oil. The power station would burn up to 40,000 tonnes of vegetable oil per year. It would be built at the Alexandra Docks and it is clear that it will rely on imports of palm oil and possibly soya. This is the second company applying to build such power stations in the UK, taking advantage of increased government subsidies for so-called “clean electricty” under the Renewable Obligation.

Please send an objection to the Vogen planning application to planning@newport.gov.uk. You can use the form below for this.

Please edit the text of the letter and the subject line if at all possible since this will be more effective. 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.

Under the letter you can find more background information about the problems with biofuels and power stations such as the one planned by Vogen.

Dear Sir/Madam

subject

VO-Gen Energy Ltd application for the construction and operation of a 25 MWe power plant at Alexandra Docks, ref 09/0195. I am writing to object to the above planning application for a vegetable oil-fired power station at Newport Alexandra Docks. I am very concerned about the serious effects which the additional demand up to 40,000 tonnes of vegetable oil, probably mainly palm oil and soya oil, will have on climate change, on communities in countries such as Indonesia, Colombia and Argentina, on deforestation and other ecosystem destruction. I am also worried about the impact which biofuel burning will have on air pollution and the health of local communities living close to the South Dock area. It is clear from the application that much of the vegetable oil will be imported, which means that it will largely be palm oil and possibly soya. Both palm oil and soya are associated with large-scale deforestation, worsening climate change, and with the displacement of indigenous peoples and many rural communities and of food production, resulting in more hunger and malnutrition. Palm oil and soya monocultures require high levels of pesticides and fertilisers, which poison soil and water as well as workers and communities. Overall, they significantly accelerate climate change. Burning palm oil and soya in power stations will result in plantation expansion and will thus worsen the disastrous impacts caused by the palm oil and soya industries – regardless of where the biofuels are sourced from. Vogen claims that they will only use ‘sustainable’ feedstock. This is impossible. For example they say that they will use feedstock certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the Roundtable for Responsible Soy (RTRS). Both of those ‘roundtables’ have been strongly criticised by civil society groups, particularly in countries where palm oil and soya are grown. The RSPO has certified palm oil from companies directly linked to rainforest destruction, peat drainage (which is a major cause of climate change) and land conflicts, as well as plantations where highly toxic pesticides (Paraquat) are used and where land was taken without the consent of local communities. The RTRS has not yet begun certifying soya, but has decided that it will certify GM monocultures despite strong opposition. Neither roundtable even attempts to protect food production. Regardless of which particular palm oil or soya is certified, however, greater demand such as from the Vogen power station, means more expansion of biofuel plantations. And plantation companies can simply have palm oil from an old plantation certified as ‘sustainable’ and then destroy more rainforest for uncertified palm oil. Furthermore, within Newport, vegetable oil burning will lead to more emissions of PM10, PM 2.5 and Nitrogen Oxide which are associated with increases in respiratory and other illnesses and premature death.
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Further Background

Biofuels such as palm oil cause more climate change due to deforestation and the destruction of carbon-rich peatlands. All industrial biofuels, including ones grown in the UK, are linked to greater overall greenouse gas emissions due to land conversion and synthetic fertiliser use than fossil fuel gas or oil.

Palm oil and soya are directly linked to the destruction of tens of millions of hectares of tropical forests, causing major losses of species and ecosystem and exacerbating regional and global warming.

Biofuels compete with land needed to grow food and directly use food for power generation, leading to more people going hungry. In 2007 it was reported that many families in Indonesia risk their health by cooking with often adulterated recycled vegetable oil while virgin palm oil is shipped to Europe for biofuels.

Palm oil and soya are directly linked to large scale displacement and often violent evictions in countries like Indonesia, Colombia and Argentina. In Argentina alone, 200,000 families have lost their land to soya plantations.

Vogen argues that certification schemes will ensure that their biofuels are sustainable, but , but those roundtables have come under strong criticism So far, only palm oil is certified and companies which have received certification have been shown to be responsible for deforestation, peatland destruction, land conflicts and violation of land rights.

Building vegetable oil power stations creates a large new market for agrofuels and will fuel palm oil and soya expansion worldwide and with it deforestation and climate change, more malnutrition and hunger, more evictions and displacement of communities.

For more information about plans for vegetable oil power stations in the UK, click here http://sites.google.com/site/foodnotfuelorg/Home/facts-on-biofuels/biofuels-for-electricity.