(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #239 - Biomass: The forests do not go up in smoke (fr, pt)

E.ON, the German energy giant, wants to convert its coal-Gardanne plant biomass. Between 
employment blackmail and hypocrisy of green capitalism, this project raises an outcry. 
---- Now that CO2 allowances are paid (companies must buy the right to emit CO2 since 
2013), E.ON (see box), owner of the power station coal Gardanne (between Aix-en-Provence 
and Marseille ), feared for its profits and eyeing a juicy alternative: a biomass power 
plant. ---- 646,000 tons of wood cut ---- The project is to convert a portion of the 
plant, which is nevertheless at the forefront of current technology, to burn 850,000 tons 
of crops per year, which would make it the largest biomass power plant in France. This 
with the blessing of the state, which subsidize the project to the tune of EUR 1.4 billion 
over 20 years, whereas naively (or complicity?) That the electricity generated would be 
"clean."

E.ON plans to open the center in 2015, by burning 124,000 tons of green waste (size 
hedges, maintenance of green spaces), 85 000 tonnes of scrap wood (objects in later life: 
pallets, furniture, demolition wood), 127 000 tonnes of fossil fuels, especially 646,000 
tons of "forest resources", ie cut wood to be sent directly to the plant.

About half of these forest resources should be imported in the early years of Canada and 
South Africa primarily, but E.ON wants France to source only from 2025, in a radius of 400 
km around the Central (PACA, Rh?ne-Alpes and Languedoc-Roussillon essentially).

This supply would be subcontracted to local industries, which occupy canvass forest owners 
and to make the cuts, with the financial and technical support of the multinational. So 
there would be a multitude of players signing many contracts, many of which concern small 
plots subject to more flexible than large estates law.

Privatization of forests

E.ON holds high the banner of green growth, praising the jobs created and the sustainable 
management of forests, and many policy makers follow suit, whether the mayor (Communist) 
Gardanne, or the President of the National Park Cevennes (C?vennes area are considered 
priority supply) has signed an agreement for the operation of the park's forests. The lack 
of environmental impact, lack of information and public debate, privatization of forests, 
and the dilution of responsibilities via subcontracting does little thought as we stirred 
the core of economic development . Yet the impact of this project will be multiple. It 
should already be aware of its pharaonic size. For comparison, the plant biomass 
Pierrelate (Dr?me) funded by Areva, a biomass capacity of 150 000 tonnes per year, that 
burned 20,000 tons of wood a year after its commissioning in late 2012, n arriving 'not to 
supply up to the project.

We therefore how E.ON happen to supply a nearly six times larger plant, especially another 
biomass plant (180,000 tons per year) is being built not far away, in Brignoles (Var) 
request . This "need" wood may therefore deeply upset local industries, by increasing 
timber prices and threatening factories producing paper, all construction-wood, individual 
heating with wood, and small plants biomass which have increased since the 1980s (fifty 
nothing in Rh?ne-Alpes).

Gardanne is more an insult to these small plants, since thanks to an exemption fell from 
heaven offering to recover the heat of combustion, it will have an overall fuel efficiency 
of 23% according to the report prepared by the office of Eco-measurement study (41% 
according to E.on). Small plants, which recover heat for district heating systems have 
their side yields of at least 60% and up to 90% more efficient.

Electricity sales by truck

Beyond this energy aberration, environmental hypocrisy is complete. Under the guise of 
"clean" electricity, we will put into circulation thousands of trucks (one truck every two 
minutes to feed the beast), burning wood waste which may contain toxic chemicals and make 
clearcuts without obligation replanting. These cuts, in addition to ruin landscapes, 
reduce habitat areas necessary to biodiversity and benefit the development of maritime 
pine, invasive species which acidifies the soil, crushes all competition and diversity in 
forests, and ignited to nothing.

Faced with these socio-economic and environmental risks, several initiatives have been 
taken to thwart E. ON. Groups of Bouches-du-Rh?ne Friends of the Earth France and natural 
environment, with other local associations, filed appeal before the Administrative 
Tribunal of Marseille in relation to irregularities of the project (no public hearing, 
contradicting certain environmental laws).

One hundred municipalities PACA concerned about the future of local wood industries have 
adopted a motion against the project. And around the affected areas, collective form, part 
of which is collected in interregional coordination SOS Forest South, created last March 
to unite dispersed in several regions forces. This mobilization is an opportunity to 
reflect on the management that we want for our forests, and more generally for public 
goods (water, air, resources) whose fragile equilibrium ensure, inter alia, the survival 
of our species. One thing is certain: we will not let them fall into the hands of E ON.!

Jocelyn (AL Gard)