Public discusses biomass at forum
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Paul Markowitz, the head of the Vermont chapter of the Sierra Club, leads a biomass forum at the Statehouse on Wednesday evening. KYLE MARTEL/TIMES ARGUS |
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By Thatcher Moats Times Argus Staff - Published: June 10, 2010
MONTPELIER – The sponsors of a public forum on biomass energy held in Montpelier on Wednesday said they believe wood from Vermont's forests should play a role in future electricity and heat production in the state.
But what's the best way to ensure an increase in biomass-fueled plants doesn't wreck those same forests and doesn't speed up climate change?
Striking that balance was the subject of a public forum at the Statehouse sponsored by several groups, including the Biomass Energy Resource Center, the Vermont Natural Resources Council and the Sierra Club.
The forum was a chance for organizers to hear what the public has to say about biomass energy.
It was one of three public forums – one was held in Middlebury last week and another is scheduled for White River Junction on July 8.
"These forums are listening sessions," said Jake Brown, spokesman for the Vermont Natural Resources Council. "We at VNRC and the other sponsors of the forums want to know what Vermonters of all perspectives think of this developing energy sector."
Brown said he hopes the information will help the state as it wrestles with how to promote and regulate the biomass industry, which may include developing harvesting guidelines, procurement standards and incentives. A Biomass Energy Development Working Group, created by the Legislature, is examining these issues and is expected to issue a final report next year.
The use of biomass to produce energy has been gaining steam in recent years.
There are large-scale power generators in Burlington and Ryegate. Forty-one schools in the state use wood-chip boiler systems. Colleges around Vermont also use biomass for heat.
A district energy system is proposed for the city of Montpelier that would connect the state offices, schools and municipal buildings to a renovated biomass plant at the site of the plant that heats the state office complex.
District energy projects also have been proposed in Randolph, Middlebury, Brattleboro and Burlington, according to the Biomass Energy Resource Center (BERC), which is based in Montpelier.
Seventy-eight percent of Vermont is covered in forest, according to a presentation by Andrea Colnes, a policy and development director with BERC, who spoke at the start of the forum.
And the Northeast in general has a lot of woodland, she said, so there are resources to fuel growth.
"We have a very viable wood supply – or wood basket – as our basis," she told the group of about 50 people who gathered for the forum.
The question, she said, is: Will we use the forest sustainably or in boom-and-bust cycles that lead to economic and ecological crashes? The question is not new, and has been under review for some time by various groups.
BERC, the Northern Forest Center, and the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, convened the Northern Forest Biomass Energy Initiative in 2006 and came up with a list of five principles to guide the use of biomass.
The principles that should guide biomass are sustainable forestry, maximized efficiency, local energy, energy security, and climate change mitigation, the group had determined.
Paul Markowitz, director of the Vermont chapter of the Sierra Club, and Colnes presented the outlines of biomass heating to the group, which then broke into smaller groups to examine the principles.
One group took up the issue of sustainability, and the session was more about exploring the principles rather than having an expert answer attendees' questions.
As the nation makes a transition from fossil fuel to biomass energy, "it seems almost inevitable that there's going to be huge pressure on forests," said Steve Crowley, of South Burlington, during the small-group session.
Crowley said the sustainability principle is important, but he wondered how you "define sustainable?"
David Frank, who works at a biomass business, SunWood Systems in Waitsfield, said he worried procurement standards that are too strict could hurt the industry.
"If we get too strict, we don't harvest anything basically," he said.
thatcher.moats@timesargus.com
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