Guest View: Let's See Biomass's Bright Side

09/06/2007- Mountain View Telegraph (Moriarty, NM)

By David Cohen  

In my article "The Truth about Biomass Energy" (Guest View, Telegraph, Aug. 9), I advanced arguments supportingt biomass in general, since it was being attacked on general terms. In several coming articles, I will offer for your consideration responses to specific concerns about Western's proposed green energy facility near Estancia, written in a question and answer format.

Question: "The Union of Concerned Scientists may assert that biomass in general belongs on the list of clean energy sources, but I wonder whether Western's biomass emissions are a clean energy source."

Emissions from the Estancia biomass facility are significantly better than the state and federal air quality standards, as demonstrated without dispute by either the Forest Guardians or the New Mexico Environment Department at the March and April hearings on the subject, as well as during the most recent hearing in August.

In fact, Western presented testimony that established that the Estancia Basin project will be using best available control technology and a fluidized boiler system that is currently being used in California, which according to the U.S. Department of Energy is actually emitting for some pollutants up to 90 percent less emissions than it is permitted to emit.

Make no mistake: The emissions will pose no danger to human health or crops.

Question: "In a recent Albuquerque Journal piece, Jack Maddox, VP of Western, said 'in some areas, trees will be completely cleared, providing more biomass per acre.' How can you deny that your project won't clear cut?"

Be careful about taking quotes out of context. The project plan, which was forthrightly presented at public hearings, states clearly that the facility is to be powered by residue obtained from state-owned and private rangelands. The removal plans have been developed in a public process by various local and regional planning organizations.

Why was this fuel source chosen? Answer: the state of New Mexico, private landowners, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Resources Conservation Service, are trying to restore the region's traditional rangeland to a stable and sustainable condition, one that predates the current juniper and piñon infestation.

And why do they wish to thin this overgrowth? Because it harms our aquifers, kills native vegetation and grasses, reduces forage for cattle and native habitat, and leads to forest fires. The blighted northern New Mexico landscape ravaged by the deadly bark beetle, for example, attests to the lack of sustainability of the piñon population in the face of drought. Piñon and juniper are not endangered species, but their aggressive encroachment has endangered native rangeland vegetation.

For the above reasons, rangeland conservation programs intend to remove approximately 100 years of juniper and piñon growth, and local contractors working under these programs have already thinned 20,000 acres. Given that fact, we in New Mexico are faced with two choices: either we leave the thinnings as potential fuel for uncontrolled fires or to decompose while at the same time releasing greenhouse gases, or we use them as potential fuel for a clean biomass power facility.

Supporters of alternative energy development vote for the latter. And this is where Western has come into the picture. Working within the framework of rangeland conservation programs, it has entered into agreements with the state and private rangeland owners to utilize the overgrowth on their properties.

Question: "But it still sounds like you're going to clear cut. Plus, it seems that you would have to mine the forests in order to have enough fuel to run the facility?"

Not so. Satellite imagery shows that there is three times enough piñon and juniper on nearby native rangelands to supply the facility with sufficient fuel. And there are enough ongoing and planned rangeland thinning operations to sustain the facility without "mining" forests.

At the August hearing, a rangeland expert unaffiliated with Western testified that there is approximately 23 million tons of available biomass material to meet the 8 million tons of biomass for the project and that the piñon/juniper are expanding at a rate of 10,000 acres per year.

In fact, forest wood would be used only if the U.S. Forest Service (1) decides to carry out thinning programs; (2) offers the wood residue to buyers in a public auction process; and (3) Western agrees to purchase that residue. To Western's knowledge, the above public agencies have not completed plans for such an undertaking.

Moreover, Western has all along publicly and privately committed itself to abiding by the 18 Principles of Forest Management, of which the Forest Guardians are signatories. There is, then, no need to fear the "mining" of forests, at least not by the hands of Western, a local green energy company committed to conservation.

Question: "The only way the project can succeed is if it harvests the forests well in excess of the renewable rate. How can you then say the biomass project is sustainable?"

Biomass opponents have offered this argument to the public in various forms, all of them resting on erroneous assumptions.

Not only does the argument ignore that there is, by proof of satellite imagery, at least three times enough fuel than needed; not only does it misunderstand the science of using biomass (e.g., expected heat value and moisture content of the renewable wood); not only does it call traditional rangelands "forests"; it also mistakenly defines "renewable" in terms of "sustaining" invasive species.

The fact of the matter is that, since the "white man" settled in this region over the last hundred years, the land has become overgrown with aggressive species that have brutalized our native grasslands and river basins. Sadly, instead of being good stewards of the Earth, our current practices have precipitated the ruin of land.

So, in fact, the biomass project is a question of sustainability: we seek to keep our rangelands alive and thriving, instead of laden with rotting brush residue, all the while maintaining the forests, heating our homes and schools, and reducing our contribution to global warming by utilizing biomass rather than coal, oil or gas.

David S. Cohen is a former chairman of the New Mexico Service Commission, a utility lawyer and expert on public utilities, and president of Western Water & Power, the alternative energy company proposing to build a biomass facility south of Estancia.