REDBANK POWER STATION

Submission Guide

Verdant Earth Technologies is proposing to re-open the former Redbank coal fired power station (near Singleton, NSW) to burn trees cleared on farm lands under woefully weak land clearing laws. The proposal ignores greenhouse gas emissions from clearing trees and treats CO₂ emissions from burning wood as zero - despite the fact that burning wood is more emissive per unit of energy than coal (Mackey et. al, 2025).

A deeply flawed NSW assessment process has recommended approval of this climate and biodiversity disaster. Now there is one last chance to put a stop to this project. Please make a submission before 5pm 18th August!

You can find out more information about the Redbank Power Station proposal on the NSW Independent Planning Commission and the NSW Planning Portal websites.

How to make a submission

1. Use the information below to write your submission
2. Send your submission to [email protected] by 5pm on Monday 18th August
3. If you’re a NSW resident, send a copy to your local MP
4. Send us a copy! We’d love to read your submission if you're happy to share it to [email protected]

IMPORTANT: Start by saying you are making a submission in opposition to the proposed re-opening of the Redbank Power Station (SSD-56284960).

Biodiversity & Climate Impacts

• For the first few years of its operation, the project will be reliant on the permanent destruction and fragmentation of native vegetation - core habitat for many threatened species.
• The NSW Government must act immediately to reform tree clearing laws and reverse biodiversity loss in NSW, as recommended by the Independent Review of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act. These recommendations included much tighter controls on tree clearing and reforms to a major loophole that permits clearing of native trees under the guise of ‘Invasive Native Species’, a deeply misleading label.
• Instead of acting to reform tree clearing laws, new figures show that rates of clearing have skyrocketed to 66,498 hectares in 2023, a 40% increase from the year before. 
• The presence of 'Invasive Native Species' is actually the result of sheep and goat farming, whereby trees that are cleared to retain pastures consequently regenerate. In the absence of clearing, natural ecosystem processes would eventually allow these areas to recover. Over 85% of the woodlands in southern Australia have been cleared for agriculture.
• At every stage of regeneration, woodland forests provide immense value to native plants, wildlife and birds, but this proposal gives no consideration to their ecological value - including the importance of restoring connectivity for wildlife across large distances. Ensuring food and nesting resources for birds that range widely across our landscapes is critically important for their survival.
• Claims that this project is carbon neutral are contradicted by the latest science. Burning wood emits more carbon dioxide than coal (Mackey et. al, 2025) and in some cases emissions are reportedly double (Booth, 2014).
• It is scandalous that a landscape scale assessment of the biodiversity impacts of tree clearing that will supply the Redbank Power Station was not required by the NSW Government. There has also been no requirement to assess or reveal the CO₂ emissions from the projects associated biomass burning and clearing.
• Clearly the NSW planning framework is not fit for the purpose of preventing biodiversity loss and reversing our trajectory on climate change.

Conflicts with Government Commitments

• The recommendations of the Independent Review of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 - NSW’s environmental protection legislation - which found that the ‘Clearing of native vegetation’ was one of the key drivers of ‘destruction, alteration and fragmentation of habitat across the state’ and a primary risk to biodiversity. In response, the NSW Government made a commitment to ‘end excess land clearing’ which has not been delivered.
• In response to the review of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016, the NSW Government committed to strengthening ‘the prescriptions for managing invasive native species’ to ‘reduce the risk of ‘misuse’ of this provision. 
• The NSW Government made an election promise to ‘introduce legislation prohibiting the burning of any forests and cleared vegetation for electricity’, and has long recognised that ‘burning timber and cleared vegetation for electricity is not carbon neutral and is neither clean nor renewable energy’.
• Australia has made international commitments to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation and reverse the extinction crisis by 2030. The time taken for forests affected under this proposal to recover far exceeds 2030.
• Importantly, in 2022, and soon after it came to power, the Federal Labor Government ruled out the use of native forest wood as an eligible source of renewable energy under the Renewable Energy Act.

Accelerate your impact

• If you live in NSW, please send a copy of your submission to your local Member of Parliament (MP). They need to understand that their constituents oppose this project and that there are conflicting government commitments at stake.
• Share this submission guide on social media to encourage others to get involved.
• Make a donation to help us continue our work!