I guess we just don't have enough to do. The Massachusetts Chapter has adopted a policy to oppose biomass facilities and opposes designation of biomass as "renewable". Have they gone too far? Or are we behind the times? Does this mean I should stop using my wood stove?
A wood-to-electricity facility in southern WV (I think Mingo or McDowell County) was recently announced. Do we have a position on it?
JBK
James McCaffrey director@SierraClubMass.org 1/15/2010 2:12 PM
Dear Club Leaders and fellow state directors / lobbyists et al:
Attached is the MA Chapter’s new biomass policy, as recently adopted, and a letter to our legislature.
We are battling several large-scale biomass proposals. Incentives to develop biomass infiltrated various bits of MA legislation/regs and other initiatives, and a rush ensued. These plants could devastate the Massachusetts landscape and cause a huge net increase of CO2 at this time. There was a very vocal and intense outcry from both members and the general public in opposition to the proposals here in MA. Much of our research has been conducted by Alexandra Dawson (former Chapter Excom) and her colleague, Mary Booth, an environmental scientist. That combined with the extensive work and legacy of the Club on related issues (forestry, energy etc) provided us with a solid background to oppose the proposed facilities.
I have spoken to a few other New England states that are tracking this issue, and the biomass momentum creates a significant threat nationwide. Biomass proponents are working hard to have the same kind of incentives that created our problems here written into the federal energy bill.
A few key points to note about our policy/letter:
• The Chapter policy is based heavily on very careful review of Club guidance documents and polices, including Energy Policies, Forest Policies, and the Biomass Guidance docs. The letter and policy borrow rather extensively from these existing Club polices and work. Many sections are exact wording from the existing Club policy/guidance docs. If there is interest in an annotated version that highlights Club polices and documents, I could generate a new version late next week.
• The policy is specific only to woody biomass harvested from living forests and being used for utility-scale electricity generation. The Chapter has “reserved judgment” on small-scale combined heat and power facilities, while acknowledging that there is still every possibility of “death by a thousand cuts”.
• The policy does not deal with other biofuels (switch-grass or algae crops etc) that are currently being reviewed by other entities within the Club. This is noted in the adopted policy.
• Although our chapter also opposes the burning of C&D, and several of our proposed plants would burn C&D, that is being dealt with in separate chapter polices.
Our Chapter leaders are hopeful that our work here will lead to the strongest possible stance by the Club on this issue. The support from our members has been very enthusiastic since release of the policy.
In December, as a direct result of our work, our administration agreed to suspend the applicability of renewable energy credits for biomass plants pending the outcome of a sustainability study. There are more details about this in our letter to the legislature.
Please respond if you have any comments or thoughts on the policy, and feel free to forward this info to anyone else in the Club who may find it helpful.
Jay McCaffrey MA Chapter Director
________________________________ James McCaffrey Director Massachusetts Sierra Club 10 Milk Street, Suite 632 Boston MA 02108
617.423.5775 voice 617.890.0338 fax www.sierraclubmass.org director@sierraclubmass.org __________________________________
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