Editor,
Regarding the story “State not close to meeting climate change mandates,” in the March 18 edition of the Daily Journal, the state has probably never been all that serious about reaching its lofty climate goals. These goals could be, rather than bona fide long-term intentions, mere political theater.
Why else would our governor include millions of dollars of funds in his last few budgets to expand the wood pellet and biofuel industries in the state. Producing wood pellets is a dirty process that releases carbon monoxide, nitrogenous gases and other hazardous air pollutants, and the burning of wood pellets in biomass incinerators is even more polluting than burning coal. The extraction and transport of wood from forests to create the pellets requires fossil fuel-powered vehicles and getting the pellets to incinerators is an additional source of greenhouse gas emissions. And, while the narrative is that the pellets are made from the woody “debris” from fuel reduction work, the production of wood pellets often involves the use of whole trees. Wood pellet production incentivizes logging, and an expansion of the industry will only lead to further degradation of our forest carbon sinks.
We need real climate solutions, not more greenwashing. Burning wood for energy is neither clean nor, in that it takes decades to recapture the carbon lost by the taking of trees, truly renewable. To reach its climate goals, our state needs to fund truly renewable, truly clean energy resources like wind and solar, not an expansion of the wood pellet/biomass incineration industry.
Jennifer Normoyle
Hillsborough
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(6) comments
I thank the author for exposing the dirty lie about wood pellet fuel. Logging living forests to manufacture pellets to BURN for fuel is clearly not carbon neutral - fuel to log, fuel to manufacture, fuel to ship, then carbon released into the air in burning.
Jennifer - it is worse than that. Corn fields are spiked with natural-gas-derived fertilizer. The objective is not to harvest corn cobs but to burn the stalks in biomass plants that generate electricity. That is officially categorized as "green" energy. Imagine the waste. Can' make this up! It is all a numbers game.
Now, Ms. Normoyle, when you say “We need real climate solutions, not more greenwashing” does this “We” include the folks who took over 400 private planes to attend this year’s COP conference (and the thousands of private planes to the other climate conferences)? And let’s not forget the “little” folks taking hundreds, if not thousands, of commercial flights to attend COP? They’ve all likely created more carbon emissions than many of us could ever create in our lifetimes. If you can convince these hypocritical climate activists and others of the same mindset to stop talking the talk and just do something to walk the walk then maybe others may follow.
Except that no one is logging forests to make wood pellets. That would be uneconomical as whole wood as a much higher value. Wood pellets are made from sawdust and other byproducts of lumber mills. This is more of the oil and gas industry propaganda push to raise "issues" with absolutely any alternatives.
Dear Westy - please do your homework. Around 2009, Iberdrola, a Spanish energy company, received permission from the State of Oregon, to clear the forests from slash which is the broken and dead branches that fall naturally on the forest floor. That wood is then burned in their locally situated power plants and produces "green" energy' Ha Ha. Normally, when slash decomposes, it nourishes the soil and keeps the forest trees healthy. Now that the source is gone, those surrounding trees are not quite dying but are not in the best shape. To make up for it, Iberdrola, or perhaps a successor company by now, is authorized to thin out the forest and burn those formerly healthy trees. Again, this energy is considered carbon free and is thus sold to California utilities connected to the interstate transmission grid. How green we are??? It is a cruel joke and we are paying for it dearly while Oregon dies.
Any country trying to enact policy to confront "climate change" on its own without the full cooperation of the entire world is tantamount to San Bruno trying to dabble in International Politics.
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