climate change

Other than the author's support for so-called "sustainable" biomass, overall a decent piece. - Josh

- by William H. Schlesinger, June 18, 2014, The Hill

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"213","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"270","style":"width: 222px; height: 125px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left;","width":"480"}}]]In America’s Southeastern states, there’s a booming energy trend that’s as big a step backward as imaginable.

In fact, it stretches back to the time of cavemen. Power companies are burning trees to produce energy, a deeply misguided practice that’s razing precious forests, producing fuel dirtier than coal and boosting carbon pollution right when we need to sharply curb this key contributor to climate change.

- by Lois Ann Dort, Guysborough Journal

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"192","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 189px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left;"}}]]Last week Nova Scotia Power held one of many regional committee meetings at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre. Members of the Municipality of the District of Guysbrough council were on hand and voiced concerns about the harvesting of biomass in the district to supply the biomass plant at Point Tupper. The topic was briefly discussed at the regular monthly council meeting on Wednesday, May 14. After council adjourned Warden Vernon Pitts spoke to the media about council's concerns.

 “What we've been presented and what we've been sold at the starting line are two different things,” said Pitts. When asked to clarify the discrepancy he stated, “The discrepancy is that they are basically clear cutting.”

[Other than ignoring all health and environmental impacts of biomass incineration, this article falsely claims that the Burgess BioPower incinerator in New Hampshire can operate at 90% efficiency, while in reality biomass power incinerators operate at 20-25% efficiency. -Ed.]

- by Geoffrey Craig and Derek Sands, Platts

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"196","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 228px; height: 192px; float: left; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;"}}]]Connecticut's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority approved on Tuesday a New Hampshire-based, 75-MW biomass power plant as eligible to generate Class I renewable energy certificates.

The facility, called Burgess BioPower, has a 20-year power purchase agreement with Public Service Company of New Hampshire.

PSNH will purchase a maximum of 400,000 RECs annually. Assuming 90% efficiency, Burgess BioPower would be capable of generating 591,300 RECs per year, which means RECs would be leftover that can be sold in other markets, such as Connecticut.

- by Vic Steblin, Source: WoodBurnerSmoke.net

- by Tom Ayer , May 12, 2014, Source: Cape Breton Bureau

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"192","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 189px; float: left; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;","title":"Photo: Erin Pottie, Cape Breton Bureau"}}]]Business owners in Cape Breton who rely on the forest for a living say high-quality hardwoods are making their way into Nova Scotia Power’s biomass plant in Point Tupper, consuming a wood supply that instead should be available for value-added businesses such as flooring and lumber.

David Fraser of BA Fraser Lumber in Margaree Valley, Inverness County, says he is seeing fewer quality saw logs and he blames it on Nova Scotia Power’s policy of getting the most amount of biomass fuel for the cheapest price.

- by Rachel Smolker,  Biofuelwatch 

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"139","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"346","style":"color: rgb(73, 73, 73); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20.671998977661133px; width: 347px; height: 346px; float: left; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;","width":"347"}}]]This year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has confirmed for us, once again, that the planet is warming, even more and even faster than panel members thought. In fact, it is getting even warmer even faster than they thought the last time they admitted to having underestimated the problem. We humans are in deep trouble, and finding a way out of this mess - one that will ensure a decent future for us - is becoming increasingly difficult, if not nearly impossible. 

That difficult task is what the latest installment from IPCC, the Working Group 3 report on mitigation is intended to address. This past weekend, the "summary for policymakers" was released after the mad rush of government negotiations over the scientists' text took place in Berlin last week.

- by Matthew Crane, April 21, 2014. Source: Dubois County Free Press

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"179","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 366px; height: 325px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left;","title":"Photo: Dubois County Free Press"}}]]Dr. Norma Kreilein, her husband, Mike, Alec Kalla and Rock Emmert were all in session during the Jasper Utility Service Board (USB) meeting Monday night — the eve of Earth Day — when it was announced that Jasper Clean Energy would be terminating the lease to create a biomass power plant in Jasper.

John Rudolf, a freelance writer covering a story for Notre Dame Magazine about Dr. Kreilein — a Notre Dame alumni — and her organization’s battle against the City of Jasper for the past two-and-a-half years, sat by himself in the public seating. Rudolf’s pedigree includes the New York Times and Huffington Post, where his stories gravitated towards environmental and political issues.

- by Robert McClure, April 21, 2014. Source: The Tyee/Investigate West

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"178","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 445px; height: 480px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left;","title":"Graphic: Indiana Joel"}}]]Nestled into a seaside forest on the University of British Columbia's lands, amid a carpet of sword ferns and salal, sits a gleaming industrial facility that's been hailed as a significant step toward a carbon-neutral future for B.C., Canada and even the world.

The wood-gas fired plant just off Marine Drive in Vancouver, the university boasts, "will reduce UBC's natural gas consumption by 12 per cent and campus greenhouse gas emissions by nine per cent (5,000 tonnes), the equivalent of taking 1,000 cars off the road."

"It's very exciting," said Brent Sauder, UBC's director of strategic partnerships, who helped shape plans for the plant. "It's not a research activity -- it's a mission."

That mission is to replace finite, climate-baking fossil fuel with renewable wood to generate electricity. It sounds so darn cool: UBC students charging their iPods on solar energy stored in wood.