By BRAD
SIMPKINS
For the
Monitor
Monday,
August 08, 2016
Recently,
National Public Radio broadcast a segment on its popular Morning Edition
program that was critical of using biomass – wood and pulp chips and other
scrap wood – to generate electricity. Biomass power plants have been described
as “carbon neutral” in an amendment to the energy bill now being debated in
Congress, meaning the carbon emitted by these facilities is offset by
regenerating forests. NPR quoted one academic who claimed biomass is not carbon
neutral, calling burning wood for energy “unsustainable.”
This
statement is not seeing the forests for the trees. Here in New Hampshire, we
have a long history of sustainable forestry. Our forests continue to produce
abundant hardwood and softwood lumber, wood chips and firewood, and they
support a large and thriving forestry industry.
According to
the most recent forest inventory statistics, the Granite State’s forests are
getting older and increasing in volume. Indeed, the state is approximately 84
percent forested, including both public and private land ownership. We are, in
fact, the second-most forested state in the nation, and as a state, we continue
to grow more wood than we harvest.
Moreover,
even as we are using biomass to produce energy, research from the U.S. Forest
Service shows the amount of carbon stored in the above-ground portion of trees
has increased in New Hampshire by over 4 percent between 2006 and 2012. Clearly,
the use of biomass in our state is more than just carbon neutral; our forests
are providing a positive benefit.
Biomass
power plants are an important part of that sustainability. For one thing, they
provide an important market for wood chips. In fact, with the recent closures
of several paper mills in New England, biomass plants are often the only
low-grade market available to many, if not most, of our tree farmers –
professional foresters, loggers and landowners performing sustainable forestry.
These are
not lumber-quality trees that are being used to produce energy but rather
low-quality products, such as diseased or malformed trees, the upper branches
and the wood scraps that result when sawmills produce lumber.
Strong
markets help keep land in forests versus converting the land to nonforest uses,
as it provides a source of income to the landowner. Keeping forests as forests
is one of the most important things we can do, not only for carbon storage, but
for a host of other good reasons, too.
Moreover,
biomass plants here help support more than 1,000 New Hampshire residents, and
according to a recent study, they generate more than $170 million annually in
economic activity for our state’s economy. Most of those dollars stay local,
too.
Let us also
remember that New Hampshire has good forestry and best logging practices, which
help sustain a healthy forest. Biomass power generation is a great New
Hampshire success story. It’s one of the best ways we can become
energy-independent using a renewable resource that’s right here in our backyard.
We are
fortunate to live in a part of the world where trees grow prolifically and are
very quick to reclaim any opening. While forest sustainability for energy may
be an issue in some parts of the world, it is absolutely a viable, renewable
and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels here in the Granite State, and
should continue to be an important component of our renewable energy plan.
Thus, we
should celebrate and support our biomass energy plants, which not only give us
electricity but, in turn, support forestry and best forest management practices
for the forests we love.
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