16 September 2025
The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state's leading environmental organisation, has today applauded the Independent Planning Commission's (IPC) decision to reject Verdant Earth Technologies' biomass power plans as common sense and science-backed.
Energy company Verdant Earth Technologies was seeking to use the long-mothballed Redbank Power Station near Singleton to burn 700,000 tonnes of native vegetation each year to produce energy.
The company proposed to use material sourced from land clearing and potentially native forests.
"It's a relief that this disastrous and illogical plan to burn woodlands and forests for energy has been firmly extinguished by the IPC," said Dr Brad Smith, NCC's Policy and Advocacy Director.
"The Independent Planning Commission has made the right call in listening to the experts and rejecting this proposal on environmental grounds," he said.
The IPC received 594 unique submissions on the proposal, with the overwhelming majority (94.6%) against it.
The IPC's report states: "The Commission finds that there are likely to be adverse environmental impacts from the Project's fuel strategy." And that the application hasn't addressed these impacts "as it should have."
The IPC also noted that the vegetation proposed to be burned played an important role as "important habitat for native species".
"After years of fighting against this disturbing proposal, in all its forms, this decision is a win for nature, communities and climate," said Dr Smith.
"Now it's up to Environment Minister Penny Sharpe to close the loopholes that allowed this proposal in the first place"
"Verdant Earth wanted to truck thousands of tonnes of native vegetation, for hundreds of kilometers, cleared under sketchy rules that the Government is looking to change, and throw it into a furnace.
"We worked with experts to make sure the IPC knew that there would be 45 native plant species and habitat for threatened animals directly endangered by the proposal - that's why it has been refused."
"The Commissioners agreed that the project would create a new demand for clearing rural bushland and increase the rates of habitat loss, which are already too high.
"This project would have released huge amounts of pollution into the atmosphere. The residents of the Singleton area can breathe a little easier knowing this plan has gone up in smoke.
"We are so pleased that this project, which has been hanging around for years, has been given such a resounding refusal."
