The draft letter

Below is a draft letter to send to Sheffield Councillors (also available as a Word file)

(You can find your councillor by clicking here)

Dear Councillor [add name],

Re: Rocpower’s application for a Biofuel Power Generation Plant at Ecclesfield, Ref 09/02979/FUL

I am writing to share my concerns about a planning application by Hargreaves’ subsidiary Rocpower for a biofuel power station at Ecclesfield. I have submitted a formal objection to the planning department in respect of that application.

Rocpower are planning to build six biofuel power stations with a total capacity of 60 MW across Yorkshire. Their application, in Barnsley, has now been withdrawn, I believe due to insufficient clarity about those plans. The Sheffield planning application, if approved as it stands, would allow Rocpower to burn any type of virgin vegetable oil, including palm oil, the cheapest such feedstock. The proposed power station would burn 10,000 tonnes of biofuels every year which, if it was all sourced from palm oil, would require 4,000 additional hectares of oil palm plantations. Although the company has spoken about using ‘co-products’, the document which they submitted to the planning department uses such a vague definition that any type of vegetable oil, including palm oil, could fall under it, simply because the residues of vegetable oil production can be used for example to livestock feed. No evidence has been provided of there being sufficient bulk quantities of otherwise unusable co-products which could be burnt in the power station planned by Rocpower, nor have they formally committed themselves not to use any type of virgin vegetable oil.

Local air pollution and public health: At the local level, I am very concerned about the additional emissions of fine particulates (PM 2.5 and PM 10) and nitrogen oxide. Those are linked to increased rates of respiratory disease (including increased severity of asthma), cardiac disease and possibly cot death. Defra minister Jim Fitzpatrick stated in Parliament on 2nd November 2009 that “Large scale heat or combined heat and power schemes should not normally be used in heavily  built-up areas…unless they are of high quality…or have efficient abatement equipment specified…It would be easy to infer that biomass should not be encouraged in air quality management areas, which obviously already have a significant problem with air pollution.”  Ecclesfield is within Sheffield’s Air Quality Management Area and I understand that abatement has not been proposed. I also understand that so far, Rocpower has not been required to carry out an Air Quality assessment. Given that the power station would create emissions equivalent to adding another 10,000 diesel cars in an already very polluted area of Sheffield. I find this very concerning.

Climate impacts: Most biofuels and palm oil in particular have been shown to worsen climate change due to large-scale deforestation and other ecosystem destruction and nitrous oxide emissions from fertiliser use. Peat expert Professor Siegert of Munich University has said about palm oil power stations in Germany: "We were able to prove that the making of these plantations and the burning of the rainforests and peat areas emits many thousands of times as much CO2 as we then are able to prevent by using palm oil. And that is a disastrous balance for the climate." (tinyurl.com/y9xel3g) I believe that Sheffield City Council must consider the climate and wider sustainability impacts of development in a planning decision.

Displacement of communities in the global South: Furthermore, palm oil and other biofuel plantations are displacing indigenous peoples, small farmers and other communities. According to the Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 60 million indigenous people are likely to become ‘biofuel refugees’.

Biofuels and hunger: Last year, a World Bank investigation suggested that biofuels were responsible for up to 75% of global food price rises between 2002 and early 2008. Those food price rises resulted in at least 100 million more people going hungry.

thanks

Yours sincerely,

[PLEASE ADD YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS]