One recent evening, a show on PBS about America’s national parks caught my attention. I tuned in right as the narrator was reciting the words of Horace Kephart, an academic-turned-national-park-advocate and wilderness man who said that while standing in the forest, “this home not built by human hands,” he felt such awe and grace that he thanked a god he did not believe in. He went on to ponder, “Did anyone ever thank God for a
lumberman’s slashing?”
I found the quote fitting as I myself have been wrestling with another forest-destruction-related topic: burning biomass, or forest products, for “renewable” energy.
The issue is timely considering that both houses of the Oregon Legislature just unanimously passed House Bill 3674, which will make nine biomass burning facilities, built before 1995 and some of the biggest and most polluting in the state, eligible to receive renewable energy credits (RECs) under Oregon’s aggressive Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Lawmakers claim the RPS, which requires that utilities meet 25 percent of their energy needs from renewable sources by 2025, will help Oregon reach its greenhouse gas reduction targets. The RPS requires “renewable” energy producers to sell their RECs to the public utilities who pay with citizen ratepayers’ money.
Unfortunately, the RPS essentially equates forest biomass with solar as “renewable” and sets no energy conservation standard. What’s odd is that Governor Ted Kulongoski vetoed a similar bill in 2009, but sources say he is eager to sign HB 3674 because it requires that the nine facilities wait until 2025 to sell their accumulated credits — “A back room compromise among the timber industry, the utilities, the State, and so-called environmental groups,” if you ask Samantha Chirillo, the co-director of Cascadia Ecosystems Advocates, one of the only groups lobbying against the proposed legislation.
The federal government erroneously assumes forest biomass energy to be “carbon-neutral” too, Chirillo said. She noted a report in the October issue of Science magazine that criticized the current climate legislation in Congress, showing that removing biomass carbon from storage in the forest substantially contributes to climate change and that projected consumption could wipe out our forests altogether within our lifetimes.
She added, “In Oregon, we’ve gone from high-value forests and trees to ‘fiber farming’ — basically tree plantations clear-cut and re-grown. Once you start subsidizing energy produced from forests, they’re going to take a hit.” Not to mention that the facilities that burn forest biomass “belch out toxic chemicals” such as dioxin, mercury, sulfur oxides and volatile organic compounds. In fact, one of the nine facilities eligible under HB 3674, International Paper, located in Springfield, is the biggest polluter in Lane County, according to the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency.
Spraying toxic pesticides, burning fossil fuels to clear cut and haul the remaining wood ‘slash’ out of the forest, then burning it and selling the electricity as supposedly “renewable” is ridiculous. For example, if I have environmental concerns and choose to pay a premium to buy “Green Power” from EWEB, will I now be contributing to deforestation and climate change? Pretty counter-productive, if you ask me. I feel as though burning forest biomass is a false solution.
In Chirillo’s words, “With all the energy put into it in order to get a little out, burning forest biomass for electricity or liquid fuel is clearly not a solution to our energy overconsumption.”
If this is an issue you are passionate about, in addition to contacting the Oregon governor’s sustainability/energy adviser (503-986-6541), Chirillo recommends calling the Oregon Sierra Club (503-238-0442), which accepted the compromise in spite of having a policy against forest biomass.
To learn more, search for “forest biomass” at truthout.org or attend the panel discussion to be held at the Public Interest Environment Law Conference: “Forest Biomass Burning: Climate and Civilization Up in Smoke,” from 2:15 to 3:30 p.m. Friday in Room 281 of the Knight Law Center. Contact Chirillo to get involved at [email protected].
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