Scale of SCORE project worries environmental group

With this mega project, is our present Government green?
What is the motive? Timber?
Read the article below.

Source: thestar.com.my
Friday February 15, 2008

MIRI: An environmental group is concerned that some 77,000sq kilometres of central Sarawak would be developed under the Sarawak Renewable Energy Corridor (SCORE).
Borneo Resources Institute (BRI) coordinator Raymond Abin said the land area, covering 57% of the state, had a huge variety of rare plants and animals, and was ancestral land to native folk. He said the public was not informed that such a large area would be developed before SCORE’s launching on Monday.

“Why is there no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) carried out in the affected areas?
“From information we gathered, this region affected by the SCORE project has a vast and rare bio-diversity.

“It is quite frightening to think of its impact to the environment and to the climate if such a huge area of forests is to be cut,” Abin said.

SCORE has attracted an initial investment of RM110bil via 12 memorandum of understandings signed by local and foreign companies, including five major deals to churn out electricity via hydro-dams and coal-powered generation plants in the region covered by the development corridor.

A 320km stretch of coastal land between Tanjung Manis in Mukah Division and Similajau in Bintulu Division would function as the main platform for the setting of 10 major industries, such as aluminium smelting, steel production, shipyard building and other heavy industries.
New power plants would be set up to produce electricity using hydro, coal and gas as their main feedstocks, so that 20,000MWs of electricity would be produced to power the industries.