Greens blast native jarrah eco-power

West Australian
Wednesday 22/4/2009 Page: 19

Conservationists have blasted Griffin Energy as hypocritical over a potential plan to use centuries-old native jarrah trees as fuel for a new "eco-friendly" power plant. Thousands of tonnes of timber could be destined for the new biomass burner at Griffin's $400 million Bluewaters power station near Collie. The company is investigating the feasibility of generating up to 15% of the facility's output from renewable sources such as wood, including non-saw grade jarrah offcuts stockpiled by the Forest Products Commission.

Green groups have slammed the idea, arguing that old-growth jarrah is not a renewable fuel source. Local campaigner Peter Murphy, co-ordinator of the Preston Environment Group, said yesterday that only freshly grown plantation timbers should qualify as renewable fuel because burning them contributed no net carbon to the atmosphere.

Burning jarrah, on the other hand, released carbon stored in the trees for some 300 years - long before the industrial revolution, seen as the "year zero" of greenhouse pollution. That would make jarrah burning a net contributor to carbon pollution, rather than a green fuel.

Mr Murphy said Griffin would even attempt to claim carbon credits under the emissions trading scheme for burning the jarrah logs in a bid to offset emissions from the Bluewater's primary coal-fired power generator. "It sounds very hypocritical that Griffin Energy could obtain carbon credits when it is the resource they're burning that stored the carbon in the first place," he said.

He accused the WA Forest Products Commission of "destroying all the old carbon-storing trees in the forest" and said it was desperate to offload its low-quality timber. He said it would be better from an ecological perspective to leave the trees to decay naturally in the forest, instead of allowing them to be burnt.

Griffin Energy spokesman Cameron Morse said plans for biomass burning were in the early stages and trials of the technology would not begin until later this year. The Forest Products Commission was among the preferred tenders to provide fuel but no contract had been drawn up. FPC harvesting manager Jaron Creasey confirmed that a tender had been submitted but said there was "not an agreement in place at this point".