25 March 2011 – Keith Taylor, the Green MEP for South East England, is visiting Southampton today, Friday 25 March, to voice his opposition to a proposal to build a massive biofuels power station. Keith is urging the council to refuse planning permission, arguing that biomass is not the way to satisfy the South East’s energy needs.
Helius Energy is proposing to build a biomass power station on a 20 acre site at the Western Docks in Millbrook, around a mile from the city centre. The site would have a hundred metre high chimney and would be just 125 metres from local homes.
Keith is meeting with Southampton City Council and will be urging them not to use biomass or biofuels to meet government energy targets, which are are based on the EU Renewable Energy Directive (1). He is also visiting the proposed site and meeting with local residents at a public meeting arranged by the campaign group ‘Action against Agrofuels’.
Keith will warn that burning biomass increases CO2 emissions and creates air pollution, increasing the risk of respiratory and heart disease (2). In the developing world the production of biomass and biofuels leads to deforestation, a loss of biodiversity, higher world food prices, increasing starvation and the destruction of people’s livelihoods.
Keith said: “Although biofuels come from plants they are not a ‘green’ solution. Growing, transporting and burning biofuels or biomass has devastating effects on people and the environment both in the UK and around the world (3). The proposed site in Southampton is next to an Air Quality Management Area which has been set up to monitor and tackle high levels of air pollution. Transporting biofuels to the site and burning biofuels will only make this problem worse.”
Keith continued: “Worryingly the application from Helius Energy doesn’t include any binding policy commitment on what is burnt or where the biomass is sourced. This means that Helius could change the fuels it burns after planning consent is granted. This has happened in other places and is a worrying loophole which gives local councils very little control over what is burnt on the doorsteps of their residents.”
Keith added: “The growing number of planned biomass and biofuel power stations in the UK is alarming and is based on the UK government’s misguided view that biofuels are the answer. Relying on biofuels to solve our energy crisis simply dumps the problem on developing countries. What we need is a more efficient use of energy and committed investment in clean renewables like wind, solar and tidal power.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
(1) Helius Energy and Southampton City Council have opened public consultations on the proposals. Keith Taylor MEP will be submitting his concerns. The consultation closes on 21 April 2011. See http://www.southamptonbiomasspower.com/comments.aspx
(2) In 2009 Ealing Borough Council in London refused an application for a biofuel power station in Southall due to serious concerns over air pollution (nitrogen oxides and small particulates). At appeal the Secretary of State ruled that the pollution would be too great in an urban area with already high levels of Nitrogen Dioxide.
(3) Recently Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, granted planning permission for what will be Britain’s biggest biofuel power station, against the wishes of local councillors in Bristol. Campaigners in the city voiced concerns that palm oil production has a bigger impact on the climate than burning fossil fuels. Research shows that if the change of land use caused by growing biofuels is taken into account, they cause more greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels.
See http://www.foe.co.uk/news/biofuels_destruction_26339.html
