A typical clear cut on Simpson land
Submitted to Shelton Blog by Duff Badgley
July 26, 2010—Clear-cut logging titan Simpson Logging Company wants to supply Evergreen State College with fuel for its proposed campus biomass incinerator—fuel that would come from clear-cut forests and be paid for by federal subsidies.
No Biomass Burn has a DVD showing Evergreen College Engineer Richard Davis saying at a July 19, 2010 public event in Mason County:
”We were approached by Green Diamond (Simpson) about a year ago and they were getting concerned about not being able to burn slash in the forest and they were looking for a way to provide us with fuel. Now the thing they liked about Evergreen is that we weren’t big enough to be their full market. They want a diversified market but that’s absolutely right, Green Diamond is looking for a way to stop slash burning in the forest.”
Simpson often operates under the name “Green Diamond Resources” in Washington and California.
Davis did not say if Evergreen has accepted the Simpson offer, has rejected it, or is still mulling it.
Evergreen has stated only fuel from sustainably-maintained forests would be used in its biomass incinerator proposed to be located on campus next to the college daycare center.
If Evergreen signs a deal with Simpson, Simpson may not need to sell its slash to Evergreen. Simpson may be able to give the slash to Evergreen free. The federal government would pay Simpson for ‘harvesting’ the slash and providing it to Evergreen to burn in its incinerator. Under BCAP—the Biomass Crop Assistance Program-- guaranteed, inflated prices are paid to suppliers of fuel for biomass incinerators. Under BCAP, Simpson would be paid these same high prices to burn its own mill sawdust in the separate 31MW biomass incinerator proposed by Simpson for downtown Shelton.
Simpson is an international logging giant. It owns vast acreage in Washington State and California where its most common logging practice is clear-cutting. Clear-cutting is the devastating logging practice of denuding large tracts of all trees leaving behind only fallen “debris”, often called slash by commercial loggers. Nothing but splintered branches, needles and leaves remain after a clear-cut. These woody remains are then stripped from the ground and sold as fuel for biomass incinerators like those proposed by Adage, Simpson and Evergreen. When the supply of slash is exhausted, whole trees are fed to the incinerators.
Clear-cutting followed by slash gathering leaves the forest floor mostly bare, deprived of vital nutrients from decaying woody matter, and open to erosion. The absence of woody tangle on the ground denies habitat to many smaller forest animals.
Studies document how clear-cutting followed by biomass incineration of slash stokes climate change: (1) the carbon sequestration of the logged forest is immediately stopped; (2) the biomass incineration in an instant releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas causing climate change.
Evergreen claims it is proposing its biomass incinerator to reduce its carbon emissions.
College officials have recently denied reports that Evergreen has already decided to build its highly polluting campus biomass incinerator and is fast-tracking plans to fund it. Toxic emissions in five key pollutants would jump compared to the current Evergreen natural gas boiler.
But, college officials said at a public meeting on July 16 that only details remain to be worked out for the planned $7-14M burner. One of those details was reported to be securing a fuel source. Davis admitted on July 16 that, compared to the current natural gas boiler, carbon dioxide emissions would likely double with the new incinerator and four other dangerous pollutants would surge by 20%.
CONTACTS:
· Duff Badgley, No Biomass Burn. 206-283-0621; duff@nobiomassburn.org; www.nobiomassburn.org
· Scott Morgan, Evergreen State College. 360-867-6913; morgans@evergreen.edu
· Richard Davis, Evergreen State College. 360-867-6136; davisr@evergreen.edu
Davis (an attorney & engineer @ TESC) argued the CO2 emitted by bio-incineration was somehow carbon neutral because the source was our living forests instead of below ground. When confronted with the point that CO2 has no 'memory' of where it came from, he claimed burning forest material was better in that a forest (hypothetically) could be restored/replaced in our lifetimes. But the likelihood of that proposition is almost nil on a planet with 7 billion (and growing) souls. When I was born, there were slightly more than 2 billion. The planet's population has tripled and I'm still around. The trend (globally) is the elimination of forests, not their restoration or sustainability.
ReplyDeleteMr. Davis also admitted, during his presentation at Harmony Hill, TESC needed $, was strapped for cash due to budget cuts, and bio-incineration offered an opportunity for it to acquire large sums of federal dollars due to the legislative perks of burning NorthWest forests in such a facility.
What few suspect is the fact this proposal was a masterful PR stroke by Simpson. If the timber giant with its own much larger bio-incinerator on the drawing board can get a respected academic leader in the community such as TESC to provide cover, who would dare to point a finger at Simpson when such a 'virtuous' 'progressive' institution has gotten in bed with them? Simpson is aiming to have some of Evergreen's 'virtue' rub off for PR purposes to neutralize any anticipated political/community opposition.
ReplyDeletei.e. They're manipulating and playing TESC like a violin. Sadly, TESC is knowingly playing along because...it's all about the $!