Biomass Fuel Subsidies to be Capped in U.K.

- by Roger Harrabin, July 16, 2013. Source: BBC

The government is turning away from its controversial policy of subsidising UK power stations to generate electricity from burning wood.

It is proposing that subsidies for bespoke biomass burning plants should be capped at 400 MW.

It will end subsidies for biomass burning in existing stations by 2027.

There was an outcry in May when the BBC revealed that millions of tonnes of wood were being shipped from the USA to help meet Britain's renewables targets. 

Indiana Citizens Skeptical of Trash Incinerator

- by Mitchell Kirk, June 26, 2013. Source: Pharos-Tribune 

A group of Logansport citizens is holding a question-and-answer session with energy, environmental and business leaders tonight to discuss the city’s power plant project.

“Our goal is to foster discussion among key people in the community who may not yet be committed to the Pyrolyzer (trash-to-electricity) proposal and would like more information on lowering electric rates now,” said Mercedes Brugh, who organized the event, in a statement.

The panel will include Morton Marcus, retired director of the Indiana Business Research Center; Bradley Angel, executive director of San Francisco-based Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice; and Mike Ewall, founder and director of Philadelphia-based Energy Justice Network. 

Timber Industry Distorts Information to Exploit Our Forests

- by Samantha Chirillo, July 11, 2013. Source: Register-Guard

Swanson supposedly states just the facts regarding Oregon's forests and industry, but instead distorts them. Swanson is connected to the Swanson Group, a family that owns mills dependent on public timber.

Her bias may be expected, but her name-calling is childishly rude. Educated, employed, property-tax-paying, law-abiding Oregonians like Susan Applegate and Patty Keene, whose June 6th guest viewpoint triggered Swanson's response, aren't "extremists" or "radicals." They just don't believe the unsupported claims the timber industry cares for the best interests of Oregon's forests and people. 

Biofuel Program could Invite Giant Grass Invasion

- by John Upton, July 2013. Source: Grist 

Here’s another environmental incentive to ditch the car: That gas you buy at the pump could soon be helping towering invasive grasses wreak havoc on America’s ecosystems.

The EPA recently approved the use of giant reed and napier grass as biofuel ingredients under its Renewable Fuel Standard program. The program requires oil companies to blend a minimum amount of biofuel into the gasoline that they sell. To receive EPA approval under the program, fuel created from grass must produce 60 percent less greenhouse gas than does normal gasoline.

But in approving the use of the two grasses as feedstocks for biofuel, the federal government has begun promoting plantations that environmentalists warn threaten the American landscape and its native species. 

Biomass and Other Transition Fuels are a False Solution

- by Karen Orr, Energy Justice Network

Clean, truly renewable energy could fully power a large electric grid 99.9 percent of the time by 2030, according to recent research published by the Journal of Power Sources.

This can be done economically and without government subsidies if a well-designed combination of solar power, wind power and storage in batteries and fuel cells is implemented.

Biomass/incineration, ethanol, nuclear power and other false solutions have been promoted as “transition” fuels or technologies, yet the capital-intensive nature of these technologies make transition impossible. 

How To Win The Media War Against Grassroots Activists

- by Steve Horn, July 29, 2013. Source: MintPress News

Rafael Pagan — who died in 1993 — was not invited to be a part of his former associate’s new firm, Mongoven, Biscoe & Duchin. His tactic of conquering and dividing activist movements and isolating the “fanatic activist leaders” lived on, though, through his former business partner, Jack Mongoven.

Mongoven teamed up with Alvin Biscoe and Ronald Duchin to create MBD in 1988. While “Biscoe appears to have been a largely silent partner at MBD,” according to the Center for Media and Democracy, Mongoven and Duchin played public-facing starring roles for the firm. 

Biomass Industry Reveals Plans to Turn U.S. into European Resource Colony

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A July Biomass Magazine and Pellet Mill Magazine webinar series, “Satisfying Europe's Growing Appetite for American Wood Pellets,” lays out the biomass industry’s disturbing plans to convert North American forests into wood pellets to fuel European biomass incinerators—further depleting U.S. forests, soils, and watersheds, while hastening runaway climate change. 

Tim Portz of BBI International hosted the industry webinar, joined by guest speakers Seth Ginther of the U.S. Industrial Pellet Association, and Dave Tenny of the National Alliance of Forest Owners, a U.S.-based timber industry front group.

Oregon: Biomass Battleground

- by Samantha Chirillo, Energy Justice Network

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"99","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"319","style":"width: 420px; height: 279px; float: left; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px;","title":"Seneca Sustainable Energy biomass power facility","width":"480"}}]]Timber Town Eugene, Oregon buzzes along nearly oblivious to the forest destruction and herbicide poisoning around it. Much like a frog in a pot of water brought to a slow boil, the timber industry relies on what anthropologist and author Jared Diamond referred to as “landscape amnesia” in his book, Collapse — slow environmental degradation that would be offensive if only at a faster pace.

The scenario with the Seneca Sustainable Energy biomass power facility, located adjacent to the Seneca timber mill, is disturbingly similar. The State and local air authorities might let Seneca have its way, but no ad campaign on the part of Seneca is going to hide the reality that biomass energy, like the chemical clearcut regime it emerged from, is a dirty, destructive dead-end.

The NRA and the Anti-Biomass Movement 

Don’t worry. This article won’t flesh out the arguments for or against an assault weapons ban, mandatory background checks, or restrictions on magazine size. It doesn’t actually have anything to do with guns at all.

Whether you think the National Rifle Association (NRA) is a fortress of freedom or a bulwark of bloodlust, there’s one thing almost everyone can agree on: how effective the organization has been in its mission-driven advocacy to “protect the Second Amendment right to bear arms.”

The secret of the NRA’s success (besides copious funding)? Crystal clear messaging and uncompromising political pressure. Two aspects the national anti-biomass movement must adopt in order to halt the construction of dirty biomass energy facilities. 

Waste to Energy a Health Hazard?

- by Mark Martin, June 23, 2013. Source: Christian Broadcasting Network 

Do you know where your trash goes? Landfills aren't the only option. Some goes toa  plant, where it's burned for energy. But some believe that may not be such a good idea.

Like a giant claw, a huge crane slowly descends into a pit filled with tons of trash, or "municipal solide waste" as it's known in the industry. The refuse holding pit is located at the Energy/Resource Recovery Facility near Washington, D.C. It is Covanta Energy's largest "energy from waste" facility. 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, it's one of 86 plants that burns municipal solid waste to recover energy. The plant processes around 3,000 tons of municipal solid waste each day. Company leaders say that produces enough electricity for 80,000 homes.