Tag: bioenergy
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Save America’s Forests and Wild Lands from Anti-Environmental Congress
The logging, grazing, mining and other extractive industries are mounting an intense attack on our nation’s public lands. The December 2014 lame duck session of Congress saw an ugly brew of anti-conservation initiatives removing legal conservation protection from millions of acres of public lands. But this was just the tip of the oncoming extractive industries iceberg.…
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$629 Million in Taxpayer Dollars for Bioenergy
- by Erin Voegele, March 19, 2015, Ethanol Producer Magazine On March 12, the U.S. Energy Information Administration published a report on direct federal financial interventions and subsidies in energy for fiscal year (FY) 2103. The report, which responds to a request from Reps. Fred Upton, R‑Mich., chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce…
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Montana Logging Collaborative Fails Restoration Goals
- by George Wuerthner, March 15, 2015, The Wildlife News The Forest Service (FS), the timber industry and some environmental groups formed a collaborative groups several years ago known as the Southwest Crown of the Continent (SWCC). The goal ostensibly is to promote healthy ecosystems, but the real goal is to increase logging in the Seeley-Swan…
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Garden Variety Environmentalism: The Band-Aid Wing of the Green Growth Economy
- by Michael Donnelly, March 13, 2015, Counterpunch It was 60+ degrees and sunny – had been for weeks – in western Oregon, as I arrived in Eugene for the annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) at the University of Oregon Law School – the planet’s oldest such conference. The conference, attended by over 3000 attorneys,…
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Planned La Pine, Oregon Biomass Incinerator Hinges on Market
- by Dylan J. Darling, March 17, 2015, Bend Bulletin A wood-burning power plant remains a possibility for La Pine, with the city now taking the lead on the project from Deschutes County and the company behind it waiting for a change in the energy market. “It’s just been on hold due to market conditions,” said…
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Gypsum, CO Biomass Incinerator Still Off-Line After December Fire
- by Scott Miller, March 22, 2015, Post Independent A plant that generates electricity by burning beetle-killed wood had only been operating for a few months when a December fire badly damaged the facility’s conveyor system. The plant has been closed since, and will probably remain closed until summer. The plant, built by Provo, Utah-based Eagle…
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State of Illinois Settles Ethanol Spill Fish Kill Case
- by Pam Eggemeier, March 5, 2015, Sauk Valley A settlement has been reached with a railroad company responsible for an ethanol spill that caused a significant fish kill in the Rock River nearly 6 years ago, Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office announced Thursday. In June 2009, a Chicago, Central and Pacific Railroad train derailed in…
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Kauai Biomass Facility to Get Fuel from Burned Forest
- by Chris D’Angelo, March 5, 2015, The Garden Island It is unlike any other logging operation in Hawaii’s history. And the $90 million biomass-to-energy facility the logs are destined for is as unique as the project itself, state officials say. “This is the largest operation that we’ve had,” said Lisa Hadway, administrator of the state Department…
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Biomass: The Unsustainable Energy Source
- by Atheo, Aletho News The promotional material from Big Green Energy, aka Biomass Gas & Electric, presents biomass as “clean, renewable energy,” sustainable and green. The US Department of Energy uses the terms “clean and renewable” when introducing visitors at its website to the topic. But is it accurate to describe the repeated removal of biomass…
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Soil is Not Renewable
- by Friends of the Wild Swan and Swan View Coalition Soils are the foundation of terrestrial life. Forest productivity is directly tied to soil conditions. Soil takes thousands of years to develop and is not “renewable“on a human time scale. Soil is an ecosystem in itself that must be healthy in order to provide…