From the Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2009/05/25/a_red_flag_on_green_energy_plan/
“SUPPOSE you learned that, in the name of green energy, Massachusetts was going to sanction cutting down trees - a lot more trees - and burning them. Crazy, you’d say? Right. But those are the facts.
“It’s widely acknowledged that forest burning in developing countries is a major source of greenhouse gases. Yet because of an accounting convention, the northeastern Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which seeks to cap carbon dioxide generated by the energy sector, treats carbon released into the atmosphere by burning wood as if it is immediately “resequestered” by new growth, and is thus “carbon neutral.” Although it takes a minute to burn a tree and 70 years to grow it back, there is no acknowledgement that regrowth is not immediate. The climate bill before Congress buys into this notion, too.
“To meet the 2018 cap set by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Massachusetts is increasing renewable energy generation, and treating wind, solar, and biomass as equally carbon-neutral approaches. Hence, the state is fast-tracking three large biomass plants to generate 135 megawatts of power in Western Massachusetts. In total, 165 to 200 megawatts of biomass generation are being planned.” …
(Read the rest of the article at the link above. For a continuing discussion of this topic, please visit the forums at http://www.virginiabiomass.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1108.)
Another interesting article published on Taiwan’s Taipei News website discussed landfill & solid waste electricity. According to that article,
“Advances in recycling have enabled all 24 trash incinerators around the country to double as biomass electricity plants, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) officials said yesterday, adding that the efficiency of these plants was expected to increase with time.”
Here in the US, however, there have been roadblocks put up for such aggressive use of our waste resources. Debates rage on, particularly in areas with multiple Superfund sites like Florida, over whether such incinerators should be allowed to continue operations and whether new ones should be permitted. A group called GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) has been spearheading local campaigns to go to zero-waste.
While I appreciate their arguments about hazardous waste handling, a ban on all incinerators effects more than just landfill trash and not all “waste” is created (un)equal. I fear that such arguments will keep viable biomass-to-power conversion out of the renewable energy considerations our administration is making. And, while zero-waste is an excellent goal for our future, we still have to decide what to do with the waste we’ve already generated for the past 100 years.
In the interest of leading people to great places for news updates on biofuel feedstocks, I recommend the following article from the Scientific American, Jan. 2008 edition on switchgrass for ethanol: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn.
