exports

/*-->*/ -By Emily Zucchino, October 28, 2014, Dogwood Alliance

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"308","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"480","style":"width: 160px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left; height: 160px;","title":"Photo: Dogwood Alliance","width":"480"}}]]Today’s biggest threat to Southern forests is the growing biomass industry. The wood pellet industry is expanding at a rate that is impossible for Southern forests to sustain. Our beautiful forests are being clear-cut, processed into pellets and then shipped to Europe to be burned for electricity.

We know that our forests aren’t fuel, and that’s why we’re sending an SOS to EU policymakers to Save Our Southern forests.

On November 13th, as the wood products industry meets in Chesapeake, VA to celebrate the destruction and export of our incredible forests, people from across the US are coming together for a National Day of Action to send an SOS to Save Our Southern forests. With 20 existing wood pellet facilities and 33 proposed, it’s crucial that we show EU policymakers that the biomass industry is bad for our environment, our communities and our economy. Join us in sending an SOS of more than 10,000 messages to EU policymakers.

Join us on November 13th to send an SOS to Save Our Southern forests.

PLEDGE TO TAKE ACTION NOW!

The increased demand for wood as a fuel source in the EU and particularly in the United Kingdom is driving the expansion of wood pellet manufacturing and export in the Southern US. We call on policymakers in the EU to hear our SOS and take action to stop the destruction of these forests.

The large-scale burning of wood pellets is not a solution to climate change or a feasible alternative to coal.

Mounting scientific research shows that burning wood pellets manufactured from trees will increase near-term carbon emissions and accelerate climate change. A recent report released by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change confirms that all scenarios in which whole trees or coarse woody residuals are used for wood pellets produce a result that is not carbon beneficial.

Additionally, our living forests provide many benefits.

Standing forests are our best defense against climate change through gathering and storing carbon.

Forests provide our communities with clean air to breathe, water to drink, and natural protection from flooding and hurricanes. They are home to countless species of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth. Cutting them down as a solution to the climate crisis is bad policy and makes no sense. We can no longer invest in forest destruction; we need to focus on forest conservation.

Protect our bottomland wetland forests!

Join us on November 13th to send an SOS to EU policymakers.

Help us reach our goal of 10,000 messages!

- October 13, 2014, Bioenergy News

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"287","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"line-height: 20.6719989776611px; width: 333px; height: 272px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]US-based renewable fuels producer BlueFire Renewables has finalised and signed a new master engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for its cellulosic ethanol plant in Fulton, Mississippi.

The contract is with China International Water and Electric, a subsidiary of renewable energy company China Three Gorges (CTG).

'The master EPC structure will utilise a US-based EPC contractor to be the onsite engineering, procurement and construction team using local suppliers and craftsmen generating much needed local revenues for Itawamba County and the surrounding region,' states BlueFire CEO Arnold Klann.

The contract is to provide cost savings by leveraging CTG's relationships and experience to complete the Fulton project.

'Our support of this important commercial project is consistent with China's goals to advance the use of non-food biomass to produce renewable fuels, power and chemicals in cooperation with the US, all the while helping the environment,' says Lin Chuxue, executive VP of CTG. 'We see this relationship with BlueFire as an important step in bringing renewable cellulosic fuels and chemicals to China's burgeoning marketplace.'

- September 16, 2014, New Generation Power

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"286","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"line-height: 20.6719989776611px; width: 255px; height: 255px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]New Generation Power International, a leading global renewable energy company, will develop three 11.5 Megawatt (MW) wood biomass plants in Japan.

Together, Chicago-based New Generation Power International (NGPI) and Nippon Energy Solution, Inc. (NES) will launch a new wood-based biomass energy generation venture that will construct three separate facilities located in the Japanese regions of Miyazaki and Kagoshima.

Expected to break ground around April 2015, the project will be capable of generating 248 GWh of electricity annually, the equivalent of powering 44,000 households and cost an estimated $169.67 million USD.

With a strong presence throughout Japan and a robust relationship with the local economies of Miyazaki and Kagoshima, NES will be responsible for the project’s development, operation and fuel supply. Synergy Power Solutions and Artha Energy Resources will advise the transaction.

- September 25, 2014, Biomass Magazine

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"281","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"line-height: 20.6719989776611px; width: 300px; height: 199px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]A proposed pellet plant under development near Mission, British Columbia, aims to produce wood pellets for export into industrial markets in South Korea and other Asian markets. The project is being developed by SMG Wood Pellet Inc., a subsidiary of Vancouver, British Columbia-based SMG Asset. The facility will be branded under the name Mission Wood Pellet.

Paul Adams, operations manager for SMG Wood Pellet, said engineering work on the facility is nearing completion, while fiber supply agreements and offtake agreements are in place. The company is in the process of securing necessary permits.

SMG plans to break ground on the project early next year with operations beginning in the second or third quarter. Once complete, the facility will have an installed capacity of 160,000 tons per year. Initial production will be in the range of 100,000 tons per year. “This is going to be a first-of-its-kind facility in North America,” Adams said, noting it will feature state-of-the-art technologies and best practices with regard to fiber handling and processing.

-  by Rob Handy, July 6, 2014, Register Guard

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"99","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 221px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","title":"Photo: Samantha Chirillo"}}]]During my tenure as a Lane County commissioner, I watched Lane County’s timber harvest rise from 337 million board feet in 2009 to 590 million board feet in 2012, reported concisely by the state Department of Forestry. In spite of this huge surge, a 75 percent increase, I never witnessed the often-predicted surge in jobs or revenues.

What I did witness was a distinct increase in clear-cutting, especially in the forests closest to Eugene. That was accompanied by rural residents in Triangle Lake being contaminated from the aerial spraying of forest poisons and by the degrading of such public waters as Quartz Creek, a vital McKenzie River tributary.

I also noticed how increased burning of logging slash made the valley murky with smoke. Ironically, the Seneca biomass energy facility I contested, instead of reducing slash burning, has degraded our air quality further by increasing its allowable pollution!