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THE BIOMASS MONITOR monthly newsletter is the only publication in the U.S. covering the health and environmental impacts from industrial-scale "biomass" energy.

Managing Editors - Rachel Smolker and Mike Ewall
Editor & Journalist - Josh Schlossberg


A publication of Energy Justice Network, Biofuelwatch, and Florida League of Conservation Voters.

BIOENERGY: MORE HARM THAN GOOD?

(The Biomass Monitor: April 2013 - Vol. 4, issue 4
)


Biomass Battle Casts Spotlight on Environmental Justice

Sometimes what seems like defeat in the short term can actually turn out to be victory in the long run. One such case involves the opposition to the construction of Seneca Sawmill’s biomass power incinerator in Eugene, Oregon. While the facility fired up its smokestacks for the first time in 2011, the effort to educate neighborhood residents about the health threats of the industrial polluter morphed into a powerful environmental justice movement in the low-income community surrounding the facility.

When Eugene-based Beyond Toxics (formerly Oregon Toxics Alliance) set out to question the “green” credentials of Seneca Sawmill’s biomass power plant in 2010—an 18.8 megawatt facility adjacent to the timber corporation’s existing lumber mill—they knew the deck was stacked against them. In a state where the timber industry still commands a great (some say disproportionate) amount of political influence, the organization wasn’t under any illusions that the corporation would voluntarily scrap its plans to profit off the sale of excess electricity to Eugene Water and Electric Board.

Surprisingly, despite Seneca Jones Timber Company’s dismal track record of clearcutting hundreds of thousands of acres of Oregon forests—including old growth—and dousing them with toxic herbicides—including in Eugene’s drinking watershed—few local or state environmental groups spoke out against the biomass incinerator. In 2009, the Lane County Health Advisory Committee concluded that “biomass plants would add to our already overburdened air pollution problem in Eugene,” in a county that had been stuck with a “D” in air quality from the American Lung Association. This reality encouraged Beyond Toxics to zero in on the air pollution... [READ MORE]

                                                                                    

Alison Guzman (center) and Lisa Arkin (left) of Beyond Toxics in Eugene, Oregon

Time for a Biomass Moratorium in Oregon

- by Save Our Rural Oregon

Due to the Clean Air Act violations both Klamath Falls and Lakeview, Oregon have experienced this winter, Save Our Rural Oregon is requesting an emergency moratorium on proposed biomass and biofuels projects in both communities.

Letters have been forwarded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, asking for their support of an emergency moratorium on biomass and biofuels projects in both Klamath Falls and Lakeview. The letter asks for a stay on the issuance of any new or modified air quality discharge permit related to biomass and biofuels projects and on awarding site certificates on those projects not yet adjudicated by the Oregon Energy Facilities Siting Council.

“If they were already built, biomass projects proposed for both Klamath Falls and Lakeview would not only have made the air quality situation much worse but under anticipated sanctions placed upon us by EPA and DEQ starting in 2014, the biomass facilities would be exempt from shutting down and allowed to continue to burn while we citizens would be fined for heating our own homes,” said Paul Fouch, Executive Director of Save Our Rural Oregon. “If the upcoming sanctions were now in effect, these plants would never be built... [READ MORE]


Biomass Industry Fights Transparency

I was pleased to see the VT Digger opinion piece by Bill Kropelin, chief forester for Burlington Electric Department’s McNeil biomass incinerator, in response to Energy Justice Network’s McNeil Biomass Forest Map—since a public discussion on the health and environmental impacts of industrial-scale “biomass” energy in Vermont is long overdue.

As we all know, we are at a crossroads in regards to our energy choices. No longer can we depend on climate-busting and rapidly dwindling fossil fuels or risky nuclear energy to power our lifestyles. While the first step is radical energy efficiency, conservation, and “destruction of demand”—which can only be truly accomplished by adapting our ways of life to what the planet can sustain—it’s clearly time for appropriately sited and scaled, genuinely clean, renewable energy.

However, not all renewable energy is created equal. While every form of “alternative” energy—from solar to wind to hydro to geothermal—has impacts on the environment and human health, by far the most harmful of these options is industrial-scale biomass incineration... [READ MORE
]


Logging for McNeil biomass incinerator in Buels Gore, Vermont

Biomass in Georgia Threatens Community Health

- by John Beal, Dogwood Alliance

Why would we sacrifice the health of our children and the future of our Southern forests for a biomass plant that will have no sustainable future? Here in Georgia we are facing this threat and asking this question. A Lithonia (GA) organization, Citizens for a Healthy and Safe Environment, is working to stop the construction of a local biomass plant. They are on the front lines of the efforts to halt this industrial development that is not a better alternative to burning coal and oil!

We got some welcome news here as the new year started when Georgia Power announced that they were retiring 15 dirty coal and oil burning plants. They also recently announced no new planned power stations. Georgia families will breathe easier with these polluters phased out. But plans to build a biomass plant in Lithonia will just add a new source of pollution that is once again a real threat to human health and additionally a new threat to our Southern forests and ecosystems. This new plant will emit tons of hazardous pollutants that are already known to cause cancer and birth defects... [READ MORE]



Burlington, Vermont Ignores Biomass Emissions

It’s good news that IBM is helping Burlington, Vermont lower its impact on the climate. [“IBM Wants to Help Burlington Reduce Its Carbon Footprint,” Seven Days, March 27]. Unfortunately, the city’s refusal to fix glaring errors in its Climate Action Plan prevents an honest look at Burlington’s actual contributions to runaway global climate change.

The Burlington Climate Action Plan reports the entire city’s carbon dioxide emissions for 2007—from all sources—at 397,272.4 tons. Yet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculates the CO2 emissions of McNeil’s Generating Station alone—the 50 megawatt biomass incinerator supplying roughly one-third of the city’s electricity—at 444,646 tons per year. A closer look reveals that the city only counted 2% of McNeil’s emissions from the 30 cords of wood it burns per hour from New York and Vermont forests along with a varying percentage of natural gas (including fracked gas)... [READ MORE]

Beyond Burning: Ground Source Heat Pumps

- International Ground Source Heat Pump Association

Ground source heat pumps are electrically powered systems that tap the stored energy of the greatest solar collector in existence: the earth. These systems use the earth's relatively constant temperature to provide heating, cooling, and hot water for homes and commercial buildings.

Ground source heat pumps can be categorized as having closed or open loops, and those loops can be installed in three ways: horizontally, vertically, or in a pond/lake. The type chosen depends on the available land areas and the soil and rock type at the installation site. These factors will help determine the most economical choice for installation of the ground loop.

For closed loop systems, water or antifreeze solution is circulated through plastic pipes buried beneath the earth's surface. During the winter, the fluid collects heat from the earth and carries it through the system and into the building. During the summer, the system reverses itself to cool the building by pulling heat from the building, carrying it through the system and placing it in the ground. This process creates free hot water in the summer and delivers substantial hot water savings in the winter.

Open loop systems operate on the same principle as closed loop systems and can be installed where an adequate supply of suitable water is available and open discharge is feasible. Benefits similar to the closed loop system are obtained.


From the Editor

- by Mike Ewall, Co-Managing Editor

What does an incinerator industry do when it can’t compete? Change the rules. Biomass and trash incinerators are the most expensive way to make energy, and trash incineration costs more than directly landfilling the waste. These industries survive to the extent that they can change the rules to get monopoly waste contracts, become ‘renewable’ energy in state mandates (see this issue of the Monitor for biomass industry impacts from Oregon to Vermont), or as we’re seeing in Maryland: worse.

In 2011, Maryland became the first state to change their state Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) law to move trash incineration from the dirtier “Tier II” to the not-quite-as-dirty “Tier I” (where wind and solar, but also biomass and landfill gas compete). Maryland is now going crazier. Covanta (the nation’s largest waste incinerator corporation) wrote a bill now moving through the legislature that would phase in a 50% recycling goal, but also phase out direct landfilling of waste. By doing so, the law would create a strong incentive to incinerate waste before burying the ash. Done under “zero waste to landfill” rhetoric, this horrible bill might pass and become a model carried into other states... [READ MORE]


Biomass Buster of the Month

You or a colleague? -- Anytown, USA

Sometimes it's not easy beating back the "bio-monster." Not only is our movement up against a greedy industry grown fat on taxpayer handouts, but we biomass opponents have the unenviable task of stripping off the thick layer of greenwash that's been slathered on this dirty energy source over the years by corporate profiteers, short-sighted politicians, and even misguided environmental groups. 

We started up the "Biomass Buster of the Month" segment in The Biomass Monitor
newsletter to highlight the sometimes under-appreciated efforts of members of the anti-biomass community across the US (and the world), folks who might not be making headlines in the mainstream media, but through their hard work, dedication, and courage are heroes to all of us in the movement. The personal profiles serve to remind biomass busters that their trailblazing efforts are not going unnoticed but are, in fact, inspiring others to take action against these pollution factories masquerading as "clean" and "green" energy.
 
If you know someone who is standing up for public health, a livable climate, and the natural world by helping to clean up the biomess--even if that someone is you, yourself--let them know you value their work by nominating them for "Biomass Buster of the Month." Just send an email to thebiomassmonitor [at] gmail.com with their name, state and contact info and subject "Biomass Buster."


TAKE ACTION:

April 15: International Day of Action Against Native Forest Bioenergy!

Show your solidarity by taking this simple action - making up a placard or banner and taking a photo of yourselves with this message: 'Don't trash forests for bioenergy - it harms people and the climate.' Find the graphic here that you can use, print it out and hold up with your group. Take your picture on April 15 and folks will add it to the visual petition at biomassacre.com to show international concern and collaboration on this cause.

Please contact Biomassacre International Day of Action coordinator Jenny at jweber@nativeforest.net to register your interest in participating.
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