climate

Cellulosic Ethanol Refinery Proposal Loses Major Partner 

- by Warren Johnston, August 11, 2013. Source: Valley News

[For more information on this facility please read "Cellulosic Ethanol: A Bio-Fool's Errand"]

Mascoma Corp., the Lebanon-based developer of cutting-edge biofuels technology, has lost its major partner in a proposed $233 million ethanol plant in Michigan. 

Although Mascoma did not confirm the departure of the Texas-based energy giant Valero Energy Corp. and its promised $50 million investment, the company did say in an emailed statement Friday that a funding partner is being sought to build the Kinross, Mich., facility and another plant in Alberta, Canada. 

Anti-Biomass Incineration Campaign - National Conference Call Notes

Thursday, August 1, 2013 at 3pm EST

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

Burning Wood is Not the Solution to Climate Change

- by Sophie Bastable, Biofuelwatch

Under the guise of ‘green energy’, burning wood in power stations has become a massive growth industry in the UK, with by far the biggest demand coming from coal-fired power station operators. So far, five of them have announced plans to convert, either partly or completely, to biomass. 

These are Tilbury in Essex, Ironbridge in Shropshire, Eggborough and Drax in Yorkshire, and Lynemouth in Northumberland. Between them these power stations will require almost six times as much wood as the UK produces in total every year. That statistic alone shows just how unsustainable wood-fired power stations are and it spells disaster for the world’s natural habitats, human rights, and our hopes of combating climate change.

Biofuels and Biomass Lose Favor: Investors Beware!

- by Rachel Smolker, Biofuelwatch

Having spent the past eight years or so of my life fighting back against large-scale commercial and industrial bioenergy, it feels good to finally see the tides turning, albeit slowly, maybe not always for the right reasons, and perhaps too little too late. But consider that in just the past two weeks there have been some remarkable signs that awareness is growing and policies may be slowly shifting. 

A few examples: 

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the EPA, stating the agency has no basis for a three-year deferral that would have exempted CO2 from "biogenic" sources (ethanol, biomass, municipal wastes, landfill gases) from greenhouse gas regulations under the Clean Air Act.

Tree plantations and bioenergy with carbon capture: far from “safe” geoengineering J

June 11, 2013. Source: Almuth Ernsting, Hands Off Mother Earth.