Category Archives: economics

[NEWS] Imperiled Biofuel Overhaul Plan Not Dead

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– by Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Mario Parker, June 7, 2018, Bloomberg News

biodiesel-pump-truck-driver_0A day after a tentative agreement to overhaul U.S. biofuel policy appeared to collapse amid farm-state concerns, EPA chief Scott Pruitt met to discuss the issue with the lead senator pushing for the changes: Ted Cruz.

Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, declined to comment on the June 6 meeting, but Cruz said it included discussion about the Renewable Fuel Standard and had been planned well before reports June 4 that a White House-brokered accord was unraveling. Cruz stressed that a deal to overhaul the biofuel policy could be revived.

“The conversations are ongoing,” Cruz said. “And I continue to believe that there is a positive win-win solution for everyone.”

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[NEWS] Financial Concerns Around Idle Texas Biomass Facility

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– by Mark Lisheron, May 7, 2018, Texas Monitor

nacogdoches_texas-monitorFor almost six years, Austin Energy customers have been paying about $54 million a year for a power plant in East Texas not to produce biomass energy.

Those customers also paid $128 million to build the plant.

Nearly two years ago, the city of Austin hired a staff of attorneys to see if Austin Energy could get out from under a 20-year contract that even supporters of the wood-burning power plant came to see as a terrible deal for utility customers.

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[NEWS] Solar Surpasses Biomass in U.S. Electricity Generation

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– by Rukhushan Mir, May 10, 2018, Urdu Point

solar_urdu-point

Photo: Urdu Point

Electricity generation from solar resources in the United States reached 77 million megawatthours (MWh) in 2017, surpassing annual generation from biomass resources for the first time, the U.S.

Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. According to the EIA, among renewable sources, only hydro and wind generated more electricity in 2017, at 300 million MWh and 254 million MWh, respectively.

Biomass generating capacity has remained relatively unchanged recently, while solar generating capacity has consistently risen. Annual growth in solar generation often lags annual capacity additions because generating capacity tends to be added late in the year.

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[NEWS] Maine Utility Regulators Approve $1.2 Million Subsidy For Biomass Facility

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– by Steve Mistler, April 5, 2018, Maine Public Radio

stored-solar_maine-public-radio

Photo: Maine Public Radio

The Maine Public Utilities Commission voted Wednesday to approve a $1.2 million taxpayer subsidy to an embattled biomass company operating two plants in West Enfield and Jonesboro.

The vote by the three-member commission largely followed the recommendation of PUC staff, which found last month that Stored Solar LLC met only one of its three contract obligations, while falling well short of the other two.

It maintained the agreed upon number of jobs, but purchased less than 40 percent of the waste wood it promised, and it spent $1 million less on capital expenditures than it was supposed to.

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[NEWS] Arizona Biomass Developers Want Forest Service to Speed Up Forest Thinning

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– by Emery Cowan, May 26, 2018, Arizona Daily Sun

5b08c54c0fe46.imageAPS is looking for new proposals that would use the small trees and branches from Arizona forests to generate a small portion of the energy the utility sends to customers around the state.

The idea is to provide a market for woody material that needs to be thinned from overcrowded, high-risk forests in northern and eastern Arizona in order to reduce the risk of severe wildfires, improve forest health and benefit watersheds.

There’s one big problem, though, according to the head of the state’s only utility-scale biomass power plant.

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[NEWS] Rhode Island Biomass Bill Sparks Debate Between Environmentalists, Energy Developers

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– by Avory Brookins, May 21, 2018, Rhode Island Public Radio

rhode island pr biomass

Photo: Rhode Island Public Radio

Environmentalists and green energy companies in Rhode Island are at odds over a bill that could advance the development of biomass power plants in the state.

Biomass is organic material, such as wood, that can be burned to produce energy. The Environmental Protection Agency also considers it a renewable resource.

However, biomass is not included in the state’s “net-metering” program, which applies to other renewable technologies, such as solar and wind.

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[FEATURE] Out of the Fryingpan and Into the Fire: Debate Heats Up Over Clear-cutting in White River National Forest

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– by Josh Schlossberg, March 8, 2017, Boulder Weekly

Conservationists are challenging a logging proposal that would clear-cut 1,300 acres in the White River National Forest northeast of Aspen, including endangered Canada lynx habitat and units adjacent to the protected Woods Lake Roadless Area.

The Upper Fryingpan Vegetation Management Project covers 1,848 acres in the Aspen/Sopris Ranger District in Eagle and Pitkin Counties, Colorado, with the goal of providing lumber and biomass energy, increasing the diversity of tree age and size, and creating snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) habitat, the primary food source of the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis).

However, a formal objection filed by Denver-based forest management analyst and consultant Rocky Smith, along with representatives from Rocky Mountain Wild, Rocky Mountain Recreation Initiative and a chapter of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, alleges the project would instead degrade habitat for lynx and other wildlife, disturb soils and watersheds, and impact scenery. Objectors say the U.S. Forest Service must draft an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to detail the project’s potential harm to ecosystems and offer alternatives that would shrink its footprint.

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[NEWS] Despite Advances, Costs Keep Wood Biocoal on Backburner

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– by Frank Jossi, April 2, 2018, Energy News Network

biocoal_energy-news-network

Photo: Energy News Network

At a research lab in the northwoods of Minnesota, scientists are roasting tree waste until it turns into something that looks and burns like coal — without the heavy metal pollution. The finished product is called “biocoal” or “torrefied biomass,” and a team of University of Minnesota-Duluth researchers hope it might someday displace coal to fuel power plants, reinvigorating the region’s forestry economy and reducing carbon emissions at the same time.

The work at the Natural Resources Research Institute lab, about 200 miles north of the Twin Cities, appears to be the latest technical advance for woody biomass. The team’s facility is able to produce as much as 6 tons per day of the biocoal, which has energy values similar to coal. It’s been successfully tested in a Milwaukee tourist train and a large, coal-fired power plant owned by Minnesota Power, the investor-owned utility in the area.

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[NEWS] Northern Michigan University Explains Why Biomass Heating Facility Is Idle

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– by Julie Williams, February 8, 2018, WLUC

Ripley_Julie-Williams

Photo: Julie Williams / WLUC

The Ripley plant at Northern Michigan University supplies steam to most of campus and plays a critical part in keeping Northern and its students comfortable.

“We provide all of the heat to all the buildings that don’t have their own boilers and it heats water, it heats air and also provides some steam for humidification,” said Gisele Duehring, Associate Director of Facilities.

Ripley expanded with a biomass plant in 2012 and 2013 that cost roughly 16 million dollars but right now it is not being used.

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