PEOPLE from Dorset objecting to a palm oil-fuelled plant on Portland joined a protest in London as the government launched a consultation on renewable energy subsidies.
Members of Action Against Agrofuels and No Oil Palm Energy (NOPE) occupied trees along The Mall with a 15-metre-long banner which read ‘Biomassacre: Don’t subsidise it’.
Members also gathered outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change in Whitehall.
They are concerned that palm oil – which they claim is harmful to the environment – is branded ‘green’ and receives a high level of subsidy for power generation.
Andrew Butler from NOPE said: “We’re seeing the start of unjustified payments to burn wood and vegetable oil to produce electricity on an industrial scale, depriving millions of people of the land they need to grow food.”
W4B Renewable Energy plans to build a liquid biomass power plant at Portland Port on the edge of Balaclava Bay. The £35million complex has been approved by planners, but has yet to be built.
The plant will receive subsidies through the Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC) scheme, granted to companies generating renewable electricity based on the amount of megawatt hours produced.
W4B says the plant will provide jobs and benefit the economy, as well as helping the UK meet renewable energy targets.
They have denied the operation would be a risk to health. Neither the Environment Agency or Natural England object to the plant.
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