Vermont biomass power plant denied approval on basis of greenhouse gas emissions

Earlier this week, the Vermont Public Service Board rejected an application to build a 37-megawatt wood-fired power plant in the town of Springfield. The Board rejected the project saying it “would unduly interfere with the orderly development of the region and the power benefits of the plant could be provided in a more cost-effective manner through energy conservation programs and energy-efficiency.” Essentially, they ruled that the new biomass plant would be bad for public health and the climate.

Across the border, Massachusetts was the first state to implement strong biomass energy carbon accounting, which has effectively ground to a halt all industrial-scale biomass development in the state. So while our neighbors to the north are seeing biomass energy for what it is – bad for our forests, our communities, and the climate – state legislatures in the South and the federal government are failing to take action and lagging further and further behind.

At the federal level, the EPA has yet to release any guidance on how biomass carbon emissions should be regulated, even though its own scientific advisory board has recommended they eliminate the use of whole trees and track emissions closely on all other sources. And in the South, states are lining up to hold the doors wide open for any and every wood pellet company to open up shop and chop down our trees to turn into wood pellets for them to burn for electricity.

Hopefully, our Southern legislatures and the EPA can learn a thing or two from the citizens of Vermont and Massachusetts and call a halt on further development until we can stop the destruction in the woods and account for carbon in a way that will reduce emissions rather than letting them explosively grow.

You can read more about the Vermont decision here.

See what Massachusetts has done about biomass here.

Watch Dogwood’s Wetlands Up in Smoke video to learn more about dirty biomass.