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Tag: economics

  • AUDIO: “Exporting Our Forests and Economy” ANTI-BIOMASS INCINERATION CAMPAIGN CALL (December 2013)

    Anti-Bio­mass Incin­er­a­tion Cam­paign — Nation­al Con­fer­ence Call  Thurs­day, Decem­ber 5, 2013 TOPIC: “Export­ing Our Forests and Economy” RECORDING: Bio­mass Incin­er­a­tor Noise – Decem­ber 2013 We dis­cuss the eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal impacts of ship­ping logs, wood pel­lets, and oth­er for­est prod­ucts over­seas from the West and East coasts in the U.S. Guest speak­ers: -Roy Keene, Pub­lic Inter­est Forester-Greg Palle­sen, Asso­ci­a­tion…

  • Biomass Thermal: The Logs That Break the Forest’s Back

    Bio­mass Ther­mal: The Logs That Break the Forest’s Back A sec­tor of the bio­mass incin­er­a­tion indus­try claims to be turn­ing over a new “green” leaf by build­ing small­er, slight­ly more ener­gy-effi­cient facil­i­ties focused on heat­ing rather than elec­tric­i­ty. Mean­while, behind the smoke­screen, bio­mass ther­mal advo­cates are sup­port­ing much of the same for­est-raid­ing, cli­mate-bust­ing, and lung-sear­ing…

  • Push for Ethanol Production Carries Costs to Land

    - by Dina Cap­piel­lo and Matt Apuz­zo, Novem­ber 12, 2013, Source: AP The hills of south­ern Iowa bear the scars of America’s push for green ener­gy: The brown gash­es where rain has washed away the soil. The pol­lut­ed streams that dump fer­til­iz­er into the water supply. Even the ceme­tery that dis­ap­peared like an appari­tion into a cornfield.…

  • Bills Show Rate Changes from Biomass Incinerator

    - by Christo­pher Cur­ry, Octo­ber 30, 2013, Source: The Gainesville Sun The Octo­ber bills for elec­tric cus­tomers of Gainesville Region­al Util­i­ties show the first of two rate increas­es sched­uled for this bud­get year with the bio­mass plant com­ing online. Bills sent out this month to res­i­den­tial cus­tomers show high­er rates than in August and Sep­tem­ber. Still, they…

  • $10 Million Taxpayer Money to Convert Beetle-Killed Trees to Biofuel

    $10 Mil­lion Tax­pay­er Mon­ey to Con­vert Bee­tle-Killed Trees to Biofuel - by Ash­ley Sanchez, Novem­ber 6, 2013, Source: ABC Fox Montana The Uni­ver­si­ty of Mon­tana is award­ed part of a $10 mil­lion grant to find ways to turn bee­tle-killed trees into biofuel. Pine bee­tle infes­ta­tions have impact­ed more than 42 mil­lion acres of U.S. forests for more…

  • Wood – An Imperfect Biomass

    Wood – An Imper­fect Biomass - by Jack Dini, Novem­ber 12, 2013, Source: Cana­da Free Press The largest, so-called renew­able fuel used in Europe is not solar pow­er or wind pow­er, but wood. As The Econ­o­mist reports, “In its var­i­ous forms, from sticks to pel­lets to saw­dust, wood (or to use its fash­ion­able name, bio­mass) accounts for about half…

  • Concerns Raised About Vermont Biomass Incinerator Traffic

    Con­cerns Raised About Ver­mont Bio­mass Incin­er­a­tor Traffic Novem­ber 13, 2013, Source: AP A hear­ing offi­cer for Vermont’s util­i­ty reg­u­lat­ing Pub­lic Ser­vice Board has rec­om­mend­ed that a state cer­tifi­cate of pub­lic good not be grant­ed to a pro­posed bio­mass ener­gy plant in North Spring­field because the project would cre­ate too much truck traffic. In a doc­u­ment filed Fri­day,…

  • Yet Another Fire at Wood Pellet Facility

    Fire Dam­ages Ernst Bio­mass Pel­let Plant Novem­ber 11, 2013, Source: Bioen­er­gy Insight Ernst Bio­mass’ pel­let plant in New Jer­sey, US has been dam­aged after a fire broke out on 9 November. The inci­dent is report­ed to have caused $50,000 (€37,330) worth of dam­age to equip­ment such as the facil­i­ty’s con­vey­or sys­tem. Nobody was injured but pro­duc­tion at the…

  • Forests Could Face Threat from Biomass Power “Gold Rush”

    Forests Could Face Threat from Bio­mass Pow­er “Gold Rush” - by Jamie Doward, The Observ­er Britain’s new gen­er­a­tion of bio­mass pow­er sta­tions will have to source mil­lions of tonnes of wood from thou­sands of miles away if they are to oper­ate near to their full capac­i­ty, rais­ing ques­tions about the claims made for the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the…

  • Outsourcing Forests Costs Thousands of Jobs

    Out­sourc­ing Forests Costs Thou­sands of Jobs - by Roy Keene Log and chip exports, con­sti­tut­ing a third of Oregon’s annu­al tim­ber har­vest, are out­sourc­ing over a bil­lion board feet of wood and thou­sands of domes­tic man­u­fac­tur­ing jobs. Yet Bar­num fails to even men­tion exports, let alone account for the loss­es. As direc­tor of the Ore­gon For­est Resources…