SUSTAINABLE BIOMASS IN MIZZOU?

Missouri turns to forests for renewable energy
Alan Scher Zagier, December 10, 2010 (Bloomberg News)

"…[W]hen an international energy company based across the [Missouri] announced plans to build a 20-megawatt energy plant using lumber byproducts and wood waste as fuel, project supporters expected quick approval…[but] Salem's five-member Board of Aldermen unanimously rejected ProEnergy Services of Sedalia's plans to build a wood-burning power plant…Those on opposite sides disagree over just how much pollution-causing carbon is generated by "woody biomass " — a catch-all term that includes sawdust, bark, branches, wood pellets, corn cobs and small trees left behind by loggers.

"The workers and owners of area charcoal plants, pallet factories, sawmills and other wood product manufacturers also fear excessive demand of a limited resource…They invoke the arrival of two high-capacity wood chip mills in the late '90s that brought out-of-state crews with heavy machinery and ‘strip and flip’ speculators before a global decline in the pulp and paper market led to plant shutdowns…"

click to enlarge

"The Missouri Forest Products Association suggested in a January 2010 report that the forests surrounding Salem could support a 10-megawatt plant — half the size of the ProEnergy proposal. Such a plant would have only added to an industry that state economists suggested accounted for nearly 28,000 jobs with a $4.3 billion statewide economic impact, according to a 2007 study…By [forest manager Terry Cunningham’s] estimate…[150 to 200 jobs would be lost], far more than the 25 new full-time jobs promised by ProEnergy…[and logging crew investment of $1.5 million in equipment would create] a financial incentive to overharvest…

"Company officials remain confident the forest floors have plenty of surplus wood waste…[and contend] a $35 million investment, along with hundreds of temporary construction jobs, would be otherwise welcomed in the poverty-stricken, job-starved region…The vote by Salem city officials hasn't deterred ProEnergy, [consultant Mike Mills, former aide to Republican U.S. Senators John Ashcroft and Kit Bond] said…Bond, who is retiring from the Senate at the end of the year, is one of the state's biggest boosters of wood-burning energy plants…[and has pushed] for more private investment…"

click to enlarge

"…[Massachusetts] invested $1 million toward four woody biomass plants before a citizens' backlash…[and] an independent study which concluded that biomass produces more polluting carbon emissions than other renewable energy sources [and coal]…Industry members say the study was flawed…Massachusetts then enacted stringent renewable energy standards…that biomass industry leaders say will prevent new plants…

"Biomass plant owners say it's inaccurate to compare their product to coal, because trees left standing can absorb carbon dioxide released when wood is burned. And trees cut down for fuel can be replanted. But burning wood releases stored carbon immediately, while forests take years to fully grow…Retired University of Missouri forestry professor Gene Garrett…[said] state officials and industry leaders [will protect the state’s] more than 1.3 million acres of federally set-aside conservation land on which to cultivate biomass crops. Another 11 million acres in the state is available for sustainable harvesting, he said…"