Tag: health

  • Biomass Combustion: Harmful on any Scale

    - by Cathy Baiton, Only Clean Air In the same way that indus­tri­al bio­mass com­bus­tion can seri­ous­ly jeop­ar­dize pub­lic health and the envi­ron­ment in com­mu­ni­ties, res­i­den­tial and small­er-scale com­mer­cial bio­mass burn­ing also have adverse impacts on health and air qual­i­ty in neighborhoods. In many cities and towns, increased wood burn­ing, both indoor and out­door, has become a…

  • 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…

  • EPA Bans Most Wood-Burning Stoves

    EPA Bans Most Wood-Burn­ing Stoves - by Tara Dodrill, Octo­ber 2, 2013, Source: Off the Grid News Wood-burn­ing stoves offer warmth and enhance off-grid liv­ing options dur­ing cold weath­er months, but the tried-and-true heat­ing devices now are under attack by the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency. The EPA has banned the pro­duc­tion and sale of the types of stoves used…

  • Environmentalists Press Detroit to Stop Trash Incineration

    Envi­ron­men­tal­ists Press Detroit to Stop Trash Incineration - by Jim Lynch, Novem­ber 20, 2013, Source: The Detroit News The city’s new sol­id-waste dis­pos­al con­tract rep­re­sents an open door to local envi­ron­men­tal­ists, and some are try­ing to push the city for fur­ther action. Emer­gency Man­ag­er Kevyn Orr’s office law week said the city select­ed a pair of firms…

  • 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…

  • Biomass Injustice

    Two Bio­mass Injustices - by Ron Saff, M.D., Octo­ber 27, 2013. Source: Gainesville Sun Turkey Creek res­i­dents face two deep injus­tices: health risks from air pol­lu­tion and noise pol­lu­tion. Tons of car­cino­gens will soon belch from the bio­mass plant. In a 2009 let­ter to then-Sen. John Ker­ry, the Amer­i­can Lung Asso­ci­a­tion stat­ed that bio­mass burn­ing releas­es tox­ic…

  • Speak Up On “National Bioenergy Truth Day” – Thursday, October 17

    Speak Up On “Nation­al Bioen­er­gy Truth Day” – Thurs­day, Octo­ber 17  Please take 5 min­utes of your time on Thurs­day, Octo­ber 17 to make phone calls to select mem­bers of the U.S. Sen­ate Com­mit­tee on Ener­gy and Nat­ur­al Resources (list­ed below with talk­ing points) to voice your oppo­si­tion to the lat­est piece of leg­is­la­tion that would open the…

  • Wood Pellet Facility Creates Dust Issue

    Wood Pel­let Facil­i­ty Cre­ates Dust Issue - by Lin­da Rus­sell, Sep­tem­ber 3, 2013. Source: KY3 SPRINGFIELD, Mo.– Grow­ing pro­duc­tion at a pel­let plant in Auro­ra means more jobs.  But peo­ple who live near­by say it also means a lot more saw­dust, so much that it’s hurt­ing air qual­i­ty there. MFA Oil Bio­mass opened the pro­duc­tion facil­i­ty on Auro­ra’s north­west…

  • Wood Pellet Facility Creates Dust Issue

    Wood Pel­let Facil­i­ty Cre­ates Dust Issue - by Lin­da Rus­sell, Sep­tem­ber 3, 2013. Source: KY3 SPRINGFIELD, Mo.– Grow­ing pro­duc­tion at a pel­let plant in Auro­ra means more jobs.  But peo­ple who live near­by say it also means a lot more saw­dust, so much that it’s hurt­ing air qual­i­ty there. MFA Oil Bio­mass opened the pro­duc­tion facil­i­ty on Auro­ra’s north­west…

  • Dirty Air for Power We Don’t Need

    Dirty Air for Pow­er We Don’t Need - by Dick Stokes, Sep­tem­ber 19, 2013. Source: Gainesville-Sun The “big lie” method involves mak­ing a claim so pre­pos­ter­ous peo­ple assume it must be true. Gainesville Region­al Util­i­ties made the pre­pos­ter­ous claim that the air will be clean­er after the bio­mass incin­er­a­tor (the Gainesville Renew­able Ener­gy Cen­ter) starts burn­ing tons of wood…