While NY Renews has some excellent goals in moving the ball forward on C02 emissions reductions and mitigating the power sector's impacts on disadvantaged communities, I completely disagree with their wholesale condemnation of the use of biomass/biofuels in their "False Solutions" Report. They've unfortunately lumped someone burning locally sourced firewood in their home heating appliance in rural NY to the issue of exporting wood pellets from the US southeast to co-fire old power plants in the UK (not something I'm in favor of BTW). It's simply unfair to make this linkage to industrial-scale biomass power generation (a process that on its best day is only about 40-50% efficient since it does not also capture and reuse the heat it generates for some other useful purpose i.e. Combined Heat AND Power or CHP). However, biomass-thermal (aka using wood (firewood, wood chips and wood pellets) to heat in a modern, efficient wood stove or advanced wood heating appliance under NY's extremely stringent air quality emissions regs CAN and SHOULD be part of the renewable portfolio as it relates to heating buildings in rural areas of upstate NY. But don't take my word for it: https://www.cleanfuelsny.org/news/scientific-community-response-letter-to-ny-renews-false-solutions-report
Shared! Thanks Lisa. Your article really helped clarify the issues for me.
Thank you for doing this critically important journalism.
While NY Renews has some excellent goals in moving the ball forward on C02 emissions reductions and mitigating the power sector's impacts on disadvantaged communities, I completely disagree with their wholesale condemnation of the use of biomass/biofuels in their "False Solutions" Report. They've unfortunately lumped someone burning locally sourced firewood in their home heating appliance in rural NY to the issue of exporting wood pellets from the US southeast to co-fire old power plants in the UK (not something I'm in favor of BTW). It's simply unfair to make this linkage to industrial-scale biomass power generation (a process that on its best day is only about 40-50% efficient since it does not also capture and reuse the heat it generates for some other useful purpose i.e. Combined Heat AND Power or CHP). However, biomass-thermal (aka using wood (firewood, wood chips and wood pellets) to heat in a modern, efficient wood stove or advanced wood heating appliance under NY's extremely stringent air quality emissions regs CAN and SHOULD be part of the renewable portfolio as it relates to heating buildings in rural areas of upstate NY. But don't take my word for it: https://www.cleanfuelsny.org/news/scientific-community-response-letter-to-ny-renews-false-solutions-report