This is an excellent article on the accounting tricks the biomass industry uses to get its energy to be considered carbon neutral. But it isn’t really.
Biomass releases more carbon per kWh than coal. The accounting trick is to not count this because trees will regrow. But it takes 70-100 years for a tree to regrow, however, when it is burned it is all released now, in a few hours or a day.
Forests in the southeast are being clear cut to be turned into wood pellets. The wood is being burned at a far higher rate than regrowth of the forests. It is not just waste wood from paper mills, but whole forests including old growth trees being logged.
Burning wood also creates lots of air pollution (VOCs or volatile organic compounds, and particulates). Some of the VOCs include known carcinogens such as benzo-a-pyrene.
Pleaser read this article and contact your federal representatives to stop all subsidies for wood pellets. And contact your state representatives to see about protecting the forests in your state. We can’t fuss about the Amazon being burned when it is happening to our own forests.
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/10/14/the-great-biomass-boondoggle/
10/18/2019
