Category Archives: Forestry

WSJ on Economic Problems of Biomass Plants



Jim Carlton points out in the Wall Street Journal

some of the problems of biomass plants.

With all the plants and trees in the world, biomass energy would appear
to have boundless potential.

Or as Georgia politicians are fond of saying,
“Georgia is the Saudi Arabia of forest energy.”

Yet in the U.S., biomass power—generated mainly by burning wood and
other plant debris—has run into roadblocks that have stymied its growth.

Here at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, officials in 2007
built a $7.7 million biomass plant to meet all the power needs of the
medium-security prison. But last month, two years after the plant opened,
prison officials closed it, citing excessive costs.

“This was a project that was well intentioned, but not well implemented,”
says Jeff Mohlenkamp, deputy director of support services for the Nevada
Department of Corrections.

Even with a captive market (pun intended), biomass was not economically
feasible.

Maybe it was an isolated case?

Continue reading →

Biomass: “a sub-prime carbon mortgage”



BirdLife International writes about

Bioenergy – a carbon accounting time bomb:

The first study, carried out by Joanneum Research, identifies a major
flaw in the way carbon savings from forest-derived biomass are calculated
in EU law as well as under UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol mechanisms. It
concludes that harvesting trees for energy creates a ‘carbon debt’:
the carbon contained in the trees is emitted upfront while trees grow
back over many years. The true climate impact of so-called woody biomass
in the short to medium term can, as a result, be worse than the fossil
fuels it is designed to replace.

“The EU is taking out a sub-prime carbon mortgage that it may never be
able to pay back. Biomass policy needs to be fixed before this regulatory
failure leads to an ecological crisis that no bail out will ever fix”,
commented Ariel Brunner, Head of EU Policy at BirdLife International.

Hm, this seems to contradict VLCIA’s assertion that
the document they gave me proves their proposed wood
incinerator would be carbon neutral.
That document openly admits that biomass produces more CO2 than
coal, and calls for national or regional studies, which didn’t exist.
Nonetheless,

when I pointed that out (again) to VLCIA Executive Director
Brad Lofton,
he asserted that

“Carbon is absolutely not an issue with our plant.”
Hm, well, now there is a study, and it shows that burning woody
biomass is not carbon neutral.

And this excess production of CO2 isn’t limited to

burning whole trees.
Looking at the actual

study:

When residues are left on the forest floor, they gradually decompose. A
great deal of the carbon contained in their biomass is released over time
into the atmosphere and a small fraction of the carbon is transformed
into humus and soil carbon. When the residues are burnt as bioenergy,
the carbon that would have been oxidized over a longer time and carbon
that would have been stored in the soil is released immediately to the
atmosphere. This produces a short term decrease of the dead wood and
litter pools that is later translated into a decrease of soil carbon.

So it doesn’t really matter that VLCIA asserts that their proposed
plant will never burn whole trees.
The tops and limbs they want to burn produce the same problem.

The study also includes comparisons with CO2 saved by
biomass offsetting coal burning.
The catch for the proposed biomass incinerator in Lowndes County
is that it’s not offsetting anything: it’s in addition to the
coal burned at Plant Scherer.
We could offset some coal through efficiency and conservation,
plus solar power.
None of those things produce any emissions.

Ansel Adams and LBJ on A More Beautiful America



A while back, while moving things from one place to another, my sister
thrust a book into my hand and said something like “we think you should
have this”.

I didn’t pay it much mind and the book ended up in a box with framed photos
because it was of a large format and besides, most of my books had already
been packed up and moved.

Fast forward to yesterday when I opened the box labelled “framed photos”
and the first thing out was a book.

It turns out that the book was
“A More Beautiful America”.
Commissioned by President Lyndon Baines Johnson,
Nancy Newhall and

Ansel Adams created
a book that is as relevant today as it was in 1965.

Adams’ photos illustrate excerpts from

President Lyndon B. Johnson’s
Special Message to the Congress on Conservation and Restoration of Natural Beauty

The speech is compelling from beginning to end.

The beauty of our land is a natural resource. Its preservation is linked
to the inner prosperity of the human spirit.

The tradition of our past is equal to today’s threat to that beauty. Our
land will be attractive tomorrow only if we organize for action and
rebuild and reclaim the beauty we inherited. Our stewardship will be
judged by the foresight with which we carry out these programs. We must
rescue our cities and countryside from blight with the same purpose
and vigor with which, in other areas, we moved to save the forests and
the soil.

Please consider finding some way that you can be a good steward and
help preserve the beauty of our beloved Earth.

—Gretchen

Excuse me? Nobody but me had gotten a biomass presentation from VLCIA?

An open letter to Brad Lofton and Allan Ricketts,

Watching

a video of your speeches to the Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE),
I was astonished to see Brad Lofton say nobody in the room but me
had sat down and gotten a presentation from VLCIA!

Brad Bergstrom has already reminded you that

Bergstrom and Seth Gunning sat down with VLCIA months ago.
I hope you weren’t failing to count Dr. Bergstrom
because he wasn’t physically in the same room at the time
you made that astonishing assertion.

And what about these people?


More

here.

Sitting directly in front of Lofton in those pictures of that June 10th
meeting in the VLCIA offices is Pastor Angela Manning.

I see later in the same video Allan Ricketts contradicts
Brad Lofton by referring to that very meeting that I organized on June 10th.
Yet one of Ricketts or Lofton (I can’t see which)
at the very end of the video claims VLCIA answered every one
of Pastor Manning’s concerns.



As I already pointed out directly to Brad Lofton before
the VBOE meeting, listening to the VLCIA persuaded Pastor Manning to
oppose the biomass plant, organizing

a town hall
at which numerous people spoke about the biomass plant, mostly against.
In case there is any doubt as to Pastor Manning’s position on the
biomass plant, she has since

spelled it out in a letter directly to Brad Lofton:

“I stand with the NAACP, the SCLC, the American Lung Association, and any other group fighting against the bio mass plant.”

In my

above message to Lofton, (sent, once again before
the VBOE meeting) I listed four unanswered concerns from the

June 10 meeting at VLCIA.
He responded by ignoring half of them
and inadequately answering two of them.
When I pointed this out to him,
he failed to answer any of them and asked for
assistance in recruiting jobs.
When I

offered such assistance
his

whole response was:

“We’re moving forward with permits in hand. Have a nice day.”

All the messages cited in the preceding paragraph were exchanged
before the VBOE meeting.
Yet Lofton and Ricketts stood up before the VBOE and asserted
all concerns had been answered.
Is that how someone acts who is seriously trying to answer concerns
of the community?

I do not appreciate Brad Lofton and Allan Ricketts using my name
to support the misinformation they conveyed in their
speeches to the Valdosta Board of Education.

When I first heard about this proposed biomass plant,
I thought it was green energy.
Attempts to obtain objective information about plant emissions
and fuel sources for all the similar nearby plants, together with
repeated presentations such as this from Brad Lofton and
Allan Ricketts, have persuaded me and others to oppose the
proposed biomass incinerator.

-jsq

John S. Quarterman

Videos of pro and con biomass speakers at VBOE

Karen Noll took these videos at the

29 September 2010
meeting of the Valdosta Board of Education (VBOE).
Much more about that meeting here.

-jsq
Dr. Gretchen Bielmyer speaking against the biomass plant.


Dr. Brad Bergstrom speaking against the biomass plant.

Brad Lofton and Allan Ricketts
speaking for the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) and the biomass plant.

Michael Noll: “enough is enough”

Here is a followup to
the VDT story in the previous post.

-jsq

Dear Lowndes County Commissioners.

My sincere thanks for letting me present my concerns at yesterday’s
meeting. It is very much appreciated.

Please understand that what I presented is based on facts. I have
worked for ten years at VSU as an educator, and my students and
colleagues know me as a straightforward person. I may ruffle some
feathers at times, but I clearly was brought up in a no-nonsense
household.

If Mr. Lofton would not continue to ignore our concerns (as he again
did at the BOE meeting), to misrepresent organizations such as the
Sierra Club (an organization I happen to support), or to keep
bringing up names of those who endorse the biomass plant (yet
conveniently overlooks a conflict of interest), I  probably would
have never brought this up. However, during these past couple weeks,
and particularly with his behavior at the BOE meeting, Mr. Lofton
has added insult to injury, and enough is enough.

To substantiate the comments I made yesterday,

Continue reading →

Biomass Rezoning Minutes, County Commission, 9 June 2009

In the

message from Prof. Manning,
he says

I did address the county commission on this topic over a year ago – in a public forum at a scheduled meeting.

He provided no date nor link, but since
this is the only Commission meeting minutes for which I can find
his name,
I’m guessing this is the one he meant.
I’ve quoted here the relevant item, and I’ve added paragraph breaks
to it to make finding individual speakers’ names easier.
See also the VDT writeup.
I would like to ask people, especially academics,
who want to cite sources to actually cite them,
not allude to them by some vague description.

-jsq

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

MINUTES

Regular Session

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT

Chairman Ashley Paulk

Vice Chairperson Joyce E. Evans

Commissioner Richard C. Lee

Commissioner G. Robert Carter

Chairman Paulk called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.

[…]

REZ-2009-05 Wiregrass Power, LLC, 2637 Old Statenville Hwy, 0164 025. 22.1 ac.,
E-A to I-S,

County Planner, Jason Davenport, presented the item, stating that both the
Planning Commission and TRC recommended approval with conditions.

Chairman
Paulk asked those in attendance to be patient with the Commission as the item was
considered, since it was an issue that many in attendance may want to speak.

Dr.
Michael Noll, 2305 Glynndale Drive, spoke against the request and presented the
Commission with a list of questions prepared by himself, Dr. Brad Bergstrom and Mr.
Seth Gunning.

Mr. Fred Deloach III, 1411 New Statenville Highway, addressed the
Commission requesting that tires and coal be added to the list of prohibited fuel items.

Continue reading →

Joy Towles Ezell: Florida Sierra Club biomass policy

A Sierra Club reply to

Brad Lofton,
copied to the Valdosta Board of Education and others.

-jsq

From: Joy Towles Ezell

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:27:54 -0700 (PDT)

As the former Conservation Chair and the former Energy Chair of the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club, and as the former Energy Chair of the Big Bend Group of the Florida Chapter, I must “set the record straight”. Today’s National Sierra Club policy is not as strong as the Florida Chapter’s policy was against burning biomass. I can speak only to Florida’s SC policy, so I submit to you the policies of the Florida Chapter and the Big Bend Group concerning the burning of biomass during my tenure, with our press release concerning the now defeated biomass plant in Tallahassee:

The Florida Chapter Policies were also published, in part, in The Pelican, Spring 2004, the official Florida Chapter newsletter.

Here is the Chapter policy on ‘biomass.’

Florida Chapter Sierra Club policy opposes biomass production:

“We continue to oppose the development of biomass production as an
alternative to solar and wind power. Biomass production depletes the
environment by decreasing topsoil, using more water, fertilizer and
diesel fuel than it is worth and creates more pollution.”
Page 8. http://florida.sierraclub.org/Pelican/spring04.pdf



Continue reading →

Michael Noll: “from the Sierra Club directly”

This message from Michael Noll was sent to the Valdosta Board of Education,
among others.
The interjections in square brackets [] where there when I received it.

-jsq

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:41:26 -0400

Mr. Lofton.

Although your email seems to be addressed to Dr. Bergstrom, the nonsense
in it warrants a short reply, before I will go home and enjoy an
evening meal:

1) I am not sure how you did in terms of reading comprehension in school, but the fact is Dr. Bergstrom wrote:

"… even those groups that jumped
on the biomass bandwagon early–like Sierra Club–are having serious second thoughts."

To further elaborate, let me share some comments I got from the Sierra
Club directly in response to an email I sent to inquire about their
position on biomass:

"The [Sierra] Club absolutely opposes all combustion of
Municipal Waste, sorted or not [referring to the burning of sewage
sludge in the proposed biomass incinerator] …. We believe that biomass projects can be sustainable,
but that many biomass projects are not. We are not confident that
massive new biomass energy resources are available without risking
soil and forest health, given the lack of commitment by
governments and industry to preservation, restoration, and
conservation of natural resources …. Biomass incineration advocates [like yourself Mr. Lofton] have been
misrepresenting the [Sierra] Club for a long time on this." (Ned
Ford, Sierra Club, Chair of the Energy Technical Advisory
Committee, August 18, 2010.

In other words, your project does NOT have the (automatic) support

Continue reading →

Brad Lofton: “simply walk down the hall”

This message from Brad Lofton was sent to
Dr. Brad Bergstrom and the Valdosta
Board of Education and some other people.

-jsq

Dr. Bergstrom-

As opposed to spending hours online and pouring through publication databases, I would respectfully recommend that you simply walk down the hall to actually discuss Dr. Tom Manning’s experience with Dr. Tom Manning. He’s in the same building with you I assume. No doubt on the same campus. Seems odd that you would publicly discredit a colleague here prior to even talking with him. Dr. Manning’s credentials certainly do not need your validation.

Thank you for finally acknowledging the Sierra Club and all of the other environmental support we have. You are the first to acknowledge it publicly. Our support goes well beyond the Sierra Club, and we provided the Board of Ed with dozens of nationally known environmental leaders who support our project.

If you would be so kind, please meet with us again, and we will provide you actual numbers

Continue reading →