Forest campaigners welcome news that Chipmill Power Station is officially a "dead duck"
 
Confirmation today that the Eden chipmill wood fired power station is a "dead duck" has been warmly welcomed by conservationists.
While nobody is really surprised by this, it is great news for the environment that it is no longer a threat to the region"s forests, according to spokesperson for Chipstop, Ms Harriett Swift.
Ms Swift said that the Eden wood fired power station would have been Australia"s first.
"The native forest woodchipping industry had hoped it would be the first of many, breathing life into an industry facing widespread collapse."
She said that the economics of the power station were always dubious without huge subsidies, even when it was combined with profitable woodchipping.
"Without a profitable woodchipping industry it is just too much of a loss maker even for this native forest logging industry to seriously contemplate.
"It would have generated many times more Greenhouse Gas emissions than an equivalent sized coal fired power station.
"It is great news that the application has been withdrawn, but there are some questions left unanswered.
"I want to know what happened to the $73,114 (GST inclusive) that South East Fibre Exports got from Commonwealth taxpayers for a bioenergy research project, "Sawmill Biomass Study" associated with the proposed power station. The federal Government received this "study" 15 months ago and so far had refused to release it.
"That was clearly money down the drain and the taxpayers of Australia have a right to know what happened to it.
"However, $73,114 is small bickies compared to the ongoing subsidies that would have been required to make the power station a goer.
"At a time when the woodchipping industry was desperately looking to native forest biomass burning as its saviour, this is most welcome news," she said.
 
http://majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au/index.pl"action=view_job&job_id=2914
27 November 2012