Tag: climate

  • EPA Sued for Ignoring Paper Mill CO2 Emissions

    Mas­sive emis­sions of green­house gas­es in the form of car­bon diox­ide make bio­mass and coal burn­ing facil­i­ties major con­trib­u­tors to cli­mate change. Yet one large source of cli­mate pol­lu­tion that’s been fly­ing under the radar has been pulp and paper mills—until now. Inter­na­tion­al Paper’s Ticon­dero­ga Mill , New York (pho­to: itsgettinghotinhere.org)  A law­suit against the US Envi­ron­men­tal…

  • New Report Slams “Sustainable” Biomass Energy

    Bio­mass ener­gy is not sus­tain­able at an indus­tri­al scale, accord­ing to a new report by Bio­fu­el­watch, an inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tion based in the US and Unit­ed King­dom (UK). Sus­tain­able Bio­mass: A Mod­ern Myth sounds the warn­ing bell on trends that would make the UK the world’s largest con­sumer of bio­mass elec­tric­i­ty, along with the inevitable impacts on the cli­mate,…

  • Carbon Accounting Errors Skew Burlington, Vermont’s Climate Plan

    The City of Burling­ton, Vermont’s Draft Cli­mate Action Plan reports only a frac­tion of the car­bon diox­ide (CO2) smoke­stack emis­sions from the McNeil Gen­er­at­ing Sta­tion [pic­tured below]—a 50 megawatt bio­mass incin­er­a­tor sup­ply­ing rough­ly one-third of the city’s electricity—hindering the city’s efforts to accu­rate­ly mea­sure and reduce its car­bon footprint.  The U.S. Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency (EPA) cal­cu­lates McNeil’s CO2 emis­sions alone at 444,646 tons…

  • Obama and Romney Unite on Destructive Bioenergy Policy

    Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma and Repub­li­can Par­ty Nom­i­nee Mitt Rom­ney may not see eye to eye on issues like same-sex mar­riage, immi­gra­tion, or abor­tion, but when it comes to the can­di­dates’ harm­ful stances on bio­mass ener­gy and bio­fu­els, the two might as well be run­ning on the same ticket. Gov­er­nor Mitt Romney  Tech­ni­cal­ly, Romney’s white paper on ener­gy pol­i­cy, The…

  • Biomass Opponents Silenced by North Carolina Commission

    Res­i­dents of six coun­ties in North and South Car­oli­na fac­ing mas­sive chick­en and pig-manure burn­ing bio­mass pow­er incin­er­a­tors, includ­ing a man dressed as a chick­en [pic­tured below], were barred from giv­ing tes­ti­mo­ny at a North Car­oli­na Util­i­ties Com­mis­sion hear­ing over bio­mass elec­tric­i­ty require­ments on August 28 in Raleigh. The hear­ing was in response to a request by Duke Ener­gy, Progress Ener­gy, Domin­ion…

  • Report: Carbon Neutral Biomass a Scam

    A new report by Spain-based Car­bon Trade Watch cri­tiques plans by the Unit­ed King­dom gov­ern­ment and Euro­pean Union Emis­sions Trad­ing Sys­tem (EU ETS) to ramp up indus­tri­al-scale bio­mass ener­gy pro­duc­tion under the guise of “car­bon neu­tral­i­ty,” despite its mas­sive green­house gas emis­sions and threats to pub­lic health and glob­al bio­di­ver­si­ty. An esti­mat­ed 80 to 300 mil­lion tons of wood…

  • Are Massachusetts’ New Biomass Regulations Strong Enough?

    The Mass­a­chu­setts Depart­ment of Ener­gy Resources final­ly released its long await­ed and much delayed bio­mass reg­u­la­tions, gar­ner­ing both cau­tious praise and crit­i­cism from grass­roots bio­mass oppo­nents. The reg­u­la­tions have dis­qual­i­fied stand-alone bio­mass pow­er facil­i­ties from receiv­ing Renew­able Ener­gy Certificates—a ratepay­er sub­sidy under the state’s Renew­able Port­fo­lio Standard—though incen­tives are still avail­able for com­bined heat and pow­er facil­i­ties oper­at­ing…