After a year of work with numerous grassroots leaders throughout the U.S., our network of activists fighting "biomass" incinerators has put together a bold and comprehensive platform to guide and unite our work. Since so-called "biomass" incineration cuts across many issues, including energy and waste policy as well as agriculture and forestry issues, it makes sense that this came out of that network.

The platform is in solidarity with those who are fighting other forms of dirty energy and seeks an end to nuclear power and all fossil fuels as well. We do not wish to see one form of dirty energy solved by promoting another, which we often see when nuclear power, natural gas or "biomass" are proposed as alternatives to coal. It is urgent that we move beyond all of these. Since many of us fighting "biomass" incinerators are also engaged in protecting communities from these other threats, we see this as one inter-related struggle for clean energy.

We urge our colleagues -- both grassroots, regional and national organizations -- to join us in adopting this strong platform and to recognize that natural gas and biomass are not "transition" fuels.

Please view our platform and consider signing you or your organization onto it.

We can meet all of our electricity needs with wind and solar. But what about when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining? Coal, nuclear and natural gas make up 88% of the U.S. electricity mix. There are several answers to the myth that intermittent energy sources like wind and solar can't replace these dirty energy sources. One of the most exciting is flywheel energy storage, now being pioneered on a commercial scale in New York and soon Pennsylvania. Check it out...

Frictionless future for energy

By Scott Stafford, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Monday July 11, 2011

STEPHENTOWN, N.Y. -- The technology contained in a new, first-of-its-kind 20-megawatt flywheel energy storage facility has the potential to make renewable sources of power such as wind and solar even more viable in the coming decades.

Located on seven acres within a couple of miles of the Massachusetts state line, the 3.5 acre storage facility consumes no fuel and creates no emissions by using flywheels housed in nearly frictionless containers. Using kinetic energy, the flywheels absorb or inject electricity to relieve the grid of excess electricity or to pump up power in the grid during high-usage times.