“Burning wood from sustainably managed forests increases carbon emissions for 40+ years,” SELC
A new study by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) found wood pellet mills are a source of carbon emissions, not the climate solution they claim to be. “To achieve meaningful carbon reductions in the next 10 to 20 years will require a shift away from biomass electricity and towards true renewables such as wind and solar,” SELC Attorney, Heather Hillaker said.
Lawyers make conservative statements, but pictures don’t lie. The SELC study shows an aerial photo of a pine plantation in Liberty, Mississippi, with small areas of thinning and a massive clear-cut harvest in the middle of the forest.
Industrial logging machines, not axes or chainsaws, clear a forest in no time at all. One logger, sitting in an A/C cab pulling handles to operate harvesters, is all it takes. Logging roads for 40-ton trucks are used to make daily deliveries to pellet mills.
The climate benefits provided by forests are undeniable and invaluable. According to the Climate and Land Use Alliance and an international group of 40 scientists, “forests can provide 18 percent of the climate mitigation needed through 2030.” The Alliance sees forests and sustainable land use as essential for a global response to climate change.
A paper published in 2017 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “Natural Climate Solutions,” found that forests, wetlands, and carbon farming, improve the rate at which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere providing 37 percent of the climate mitigation to limit warming to 1.5°C.
No grid, no Drax, no wood pellets!
There are many sources of electric energy. Solar and wind plus power storage microgrids are resilient solutions for the new climate.
The 4,000-megawatt UK Drax power station built in the 1960s offers a false choice between coal, natural gas, and wood pellets. In fact, the UK has plenty of solar and wind. On May 10, 2020, the UK went a full month without burning coal for electricity for the first time, according to the UK National Grid. However, the Drax power station burned U.S. wood pellets every day, as a “renewable” resource. The UK National Grid and Drax greenwash with a stiff upper lip.
The National Grid wants to be smart with smart meters in every home, smart appliances, smart thermostats, and dumb people. Utilities like to have monopolies with captive rate payers, not smart customers.
The smart grid ignores power outages from thousands of substations located at ground level. The 2019 Arkansas floods took out several Entergy Arkansas substations leaving people in the dark without A/C and edible food. Entergy proudly repaired the stations, but the next flood will take them out again. If you live in an Entergy home, you will pay for a smart meter!
Cutting out the middleman?
Drax Biomass has three “Bioenergy” pellet mills, one in Mississippi and two in Louisiana, using forests from 18 Arkansas counties!
Arkansas Bioenergy was incorporated as a Foreign LLC in March 2020. It is asking the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality permission to pollute three sites, one in Pope County and two in Ouachita County. The AEDQ air permits, “Title V Major Source” suggest large pellet mills and massive deforestation.
Burning our money
Pellet mills are high-risk investments that create road congestion, pollution, and dead-end jobs for Arkansans. Mills are funded with generous state incentives using our state taxes and depend on U.K. subsidies for wood pellets.
Recent projects have had a negative impact on the Arkansas economy. Zilkha Biomass was abandoned, Stephens Highland Pellets was cancelled, and the Pine Bluff Highland Pellets is full of legal, financial, and operational problems.
Plant trees for your kids
In 2007, Richard Branson offered $25 million for a new device capable of removing large volumes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. One of the top entries was a drawing of a tree. Nature knows best.
Arkansas forest owners should be compensated for their investment and keep the invaluable forests standing. Let’s protect our future, 2030 is around the corner.
Dr. Luis Contreras
Please read what the top expert in Natural Climate Solutions says about PROFORESTATION
https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-keeping-mature-forests-intact-is-key-to-the-climate-fight
Bad news: Only days after the European Commission heralded the importance of protecting the forests to achieve climate and biodiversity goals, they are not walking the talk
Member States plan a major increase in wood harvesting leading to a major reduction – upwards of 20 per cent – in the capacity of the forests to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
What’s up with this?
https://www.fern.org/news-resources/european-commission-faces-major-hurdle-to-protect-and-restore-forests-2148/
Here is a surprising report, out today: “Progress can be both quiet and spectacular: Britain’s power grid emissions hit record lows”
Ignoring carbon dioxide emissions when burning US forest at Drax, and the massive carbon footprint starting when industrial harvesters destroy Arkansas forests — as long as you keep quiet, the results are spectacular.
The climate emergency is a planetary crisis. Fake emissions accounting is criminal and dumb.
We share a common home with names like USA, Canada, and Great Britan. Someone made them up and Nature ignores.
The current pandemic has shown countries hidding the number of casualties to “go back to normal.” The Corona Virus will keep looking for hosts regardless of the economy or the number of nuclear weapons.
https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4015600/progress-quiet-spectacular-britain-power-grid-emissions-hit-record-lows
Foresters speak in code, using common words with unique meanings.
“Managing a forest” is about making the highest profit from logging.
“Sustainable managed forests” means logging and planting seedlings – Loblolly pine and other fast growing “crops” – pretending that floods and droughts and the rest of the severe weather in the last 10 years is not going to happen again.
Our forests are stressed, and no one knows how severe the damages to the soil and the fungal network, have been.
August 2019 – “Burning wood from ‘sustainably managed’ forests increases carbon pollution for 40+ years”
https://www.southernenvironment.org/news-and-press/news-feed/new-study-shows-burning-wood-from-sustainably-managed-forests-increases-carbon-pollution-for-40-years
This May 21, 2020 report, is another reference on UK’s wind power
“Wind to supply half of UK power by 2030”
RenewableUK’s study forecasts the renewable source will ‘underpin’ the energy transition to achieve 2050 target. The UK’s installed wind capacity could reach 66GW by the end of this decade, providing more than half the country’s power.
“Additional growth of onshore wind to 26GW by 2030 means the UK’s overall wind capacity can grow to 66GW by the end of this decade, providing more than half the UK’s power,” the report stated.
The study forecasts a six-fold expansion in wind from 22GW today to 126GW by 2050.
The installed capacity will not only meeting growing electricity demand but will also help deliver the UK’s 2050 net zero emissions target, where renewable hydrogen has a “key role” to play in the UK’s energy transition, the report stated.
https://renews.biz/60443/wind-to-supply-half-uk-power-by-2030/
The UK National Grid Energy System Operator (ESO) – a federal agency responsible for keeping the lights on at the lowest level of carbon emissions and cost – has authority over power generation.
Wind, not wood pellets, are what ESO prefers for the UK.
January 30, 2020 – A new National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) report reveals the facts and figures behind Great Britain’s demand for electricity in January.
Wind power alone made up almost a quarter of electricity generation, with low carbon sources generating almost half of Britain’s power.
The report highlights the role of the ESO’s control room in managing the GB system, with its engineers working around the clock to balance supply and demand. Their decisions also determine where Britain’s electricity comes from, always choosing the most efficient mix for consumers using the generation and network assets available.
National Grid ESO, a legally separate part of the wider National Grid group, oversaw a record breaking year for Britain’s electricity in 2019, with the highest levels of wind and solar generation ever recorded and the longest ever period of no coal being burned to generate electricity – 437 hours. GB electricity was also the ‘greenest’ it has ever been on August 17th last year, with the lowest ever carbon intensity and highest ever level of low carbon power
The National Grid ESO Carbon Intensity website and app, also shows the carbon intensity and generation mix of electricity consumed regionally across Great Britain, as well as showing users when electricity is at its cleanest, helping them to plan their energy use.
Commenting on January’s report, Roisin Quinn, Head of National Control at National Grid ESO, said:
“The engineers in our control room balance supply and demand for electricity in Great Britain minute by minute, so it’s great to be able to showcase their work in our new monthly Electricity Report.
In January they worked around the clock to manage 22 thousand gigawatt hours of electricity through Great Britain’s network, that’s enough to power over 4500 billion kettles or 23 billion washing machines all running at the same time!
My team also make the decisions that influence the mix of power too, using the generators and network assets available to deliver safe and reliable electricity, always choosing the cheapest mix for consumers.
Our new report shows that January is typical of the changing nature of GB electricity, with a reduced reliance on coal power stations (there are only 5 remaining in GB) and almost a quarter of electricity coming from wind power – trends we expect to continue as we move towards our ambition of being able to operate carbon free by 2025.”
https://www.nationalgrideso.com/media/wind-blows-new-year-making-almost-25-great-britains-electricity
Why build new pellet mills for the UK Drax power station, in Arkansas?
RenewableUK is a non-profit policy advisor, they say, wind power – not bulk dirty energy – is the future!
May 21, 2020 – Renewables could provide more than three quarters of the UK’s power needs by mid-century, according to a report published today by trade body RenewableUK that touts the critical role wind energy expansion and green hydrogen development will play in the country’s net zero transition.
Entitled Powering the Future: RenewableUK’s Vision of the Transition, the report joins a wave of recent studies detailing how the government could deliver on the country’s 2050 net zero ambition while driving a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
According to RenewableUK’s analysis, wind will be one of the dominant players in the UK’s energy transition, with the report predicting that installed capacity could surge six-fold to more than 120GW by 2050.
The group warned the right policy environment is required to spur this boom and recommended the government increase the frequency of auctions for clean power contracts so that they are held annually. It also urged the government to introduce more targeted support for innovative renewable technologies, such as floating wind, wind and tidal power, and green hydrogen facilities, which are not yet able to compete with more established power sources.
With the right policies, the UK’s offshore wind industry could reach 40GW by 2030 – which would cover one-third of UK’s electricity demand – rising to 90GW by 2050, the report predicts.
https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4015490/renewableuk-green-hydrogen-wind-energy-boom-crucial-uk-net-zero-transition