Climate camp targets Forth Energy

You may not agree with their methods, but there might well be some truth behind their message. Today, a small group of climate camp activists 'occupied' the Forth Energy offices on Leith Docks to highlight the environmental problems that large scale biomass plants, like the one Forth Energy propose to build on Leith Docks, could cause. You can see them in the photo slideshow by Calvinsimages, below:

In a statement the protestors said:

"If built these power stations will mean even more wood imports from abroad and even more destruction of rainforests and old growth forests to be replaced with plantations of eucalyptus in places like South America. For example, the smokestack CO2 emissions from a biomass power station are commonly around 1.5 times greater than those from a coal power station with the same energy output. In addition to harming the global climate, these power stations will severely impact the health of the communities where they are built. All biomass burning releases significant quantities of nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). Such pollution increases the risks of respiratory diseases, heart disease, cancer and premature mortatily including infant mortality and miscarriage. Leith power station alone would generate nitrogen oxide and particulates equivalent to 100,000 more cars while Edinburgh and Grangemouth power stations are 200m to the nearest home and Dundee power station just 100m"

A full planning application for the proposal is due to be submitted "within weeks," with Forth Energy apparently determined to ignore widely held local concerns over the scale and location of the plant.

The plant will burn around 1.3 million tonnes of wood that is to be shipped to Leith from foreign countries. Although Forth Ports have given a wooly commitment to source the fuel from "sustainable" sources, to date, the company has refused our calls for full public disclosure of their fuel sources on an annual basis, nor will they commit to using wood from forests that have been independently certified by the FSC - despite using the FSC logo in their presentation to councillors in Dundee (You can see the slide in question here)

Given that the Leith plant is likely to attract around £40million worth of public subsidy for each year of its operation, it is hardly surprising that some people feel very strongly that large scale Biomass is a poor use of tax payers money.