Make a submission to protect forests from burning for electricity

A loophole in NSW laws allows native forest trees to be cleared, woodchipped and burnt for electricity.

This law is currently being reviewed by the EPA, creating the perfect opportunity to shine a light on this outrageous loophole that allows the biomass industry to ransack our native bush.

Trees that are too small or not straight enough for sawlogs are usually left standing in our state forests, but this loophole classifies these living trees as waste that can be logged for biomass.

Why it’s important to make a submission: Biomass companies currently have proposals to feed up to a million tonnes of woodchips into power stations every year, mostly from native forests.

These biomass projects, like the proposed Redbank power station, will incentivise increased and more intensive native forest logging by creating a market demand for low value, high volume native forest products. 

By fixing the loophole in the laws, we can stop these proposals from treating our precious native forests as a source of "waste" woodchips for their furnaces. These trees provide critical habitat, remove greenhouse pollution from the air, and filter our clean water. They are worth more standing.

Submissions close at midnight on Thursday, 14 April 2022.

To whom it may concern,
Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedbank on the Protection of the Environment Operations (General) Regulation 2022.
I am concerned that as it currently stands, this regulation will promote the destruction of our native forests for the purposes of electricity generation. This is unsustainable and in conflict with the objectives of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act.
The regulation, in section 135, bans the burning of native forest biomaterial for electricity generation. This is a crucial goal, because there is a real risk that biomass power stations drive an increase in the volume and intensity of native forest logging.
However, currently the regulation has a loophole that excludes small and crooked trees (pulp logs) as well as any tree removed in a thinning operation from the definition of native forest biomaterial.
This loophole means that millions of living trees that make up the fabric of our forests are eligible to be logged through forestry operations and burnt to generate electricity. It also creates an economic driver for logging operations to maximise damage to forests. Trees that would otherwise be left standing in selective logging operations will be cleared, chipped, and burned. 
Leaving this loophole in the regulation incentivises the development and operation of biomass power stations under the assumption that they will have access to entire living trees from NSW’s native forests for use as feedstock.
The proposed Verdant Power Station (formerly known as Redbank power station) in the Hunter Valley is a current example of this, with the owner Verdant Earth Technologies detailing in its Modification Development Application how it plans to source 600,000 tonnes of native forest biomaterial to burn every year from native forestry operations. If this project is approved under the current draft regulation, it will lead to increased and more intensive native forest logging by creating a market demand for low value, high volume native forest products from forestry operations.
To ensure that any biomass power stations that are approved in the future in NSW do not use unsustainable timber logged from our native forests as feedstock, I recommend the following amendments to the POEO regulation:
1. Amend Clause 134 under "Part 3: Burning of bio-material in electricity generating works" by removing parts (vi) and (vii). Inclusion of (vi) and (vii) of Clause 134 provides Forestry Corporation and private native forest operators permission to clear younger and smaller trees which aren’t suitable for sawmilling to be woodchipped and burnt for energy. It incentivizes forestry operators to log trees which are usually left standing in logging operations by providing a market for them. Trees considered ‘pulp wood’ are still crucial parts of the forest and play a critical role as habitat, feed trees and for the health of the forest ecosystem. Intensification of logging will compound and worsen impacts of habitat loss for threatened and vulnerable species.
2. Amend part (3) of Clause 136 to ensure that the true value of a tree is considered before it is granted exemption to be logged and burnt for electricity. This would include providing definitional clarity to what is considered ‘higher value use’ by amending 136 (3) to the following: “In this section- higher value use includes the role of living trees and woody debris in native forest as habitat, for carbon storage, for its role in the hydrological system or as mulch or wood chips for the purposes of— (a) erosion and sediment control, or (b) landscaping the land from which the timber was obtained.”
Thank you for considering my submission on this important matter.