Thurston Moratorium Hearing Testimony 2/7/11

Duff Badgley, Coordinator of No Biomass Burn,
a state wide group fighting biomass incineration

PLEASE KEEP THE MORATORIUM IN PLACE

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Duff Badgley Mason County Progessive

February 7, 2010

Re: Thurston Biomass Moratorium is Good and Necessary

Dear Thurston County Commissioners:

On December 21, 2010, you acted with courage and vision by imposing a 12-month moratorium on permitting all types of biomass incinerators within your county. I support the moratorium and ask you to keep it in place for the full 12 months. A key reason why this moratorium is needed is the weight of published, peer-reviewed science documenting that biomass combustion emits proportionately more carbon dioxide that fossil fuel combustion—and thus stokes climate change.

On February 2, 2011—last week—three internationally-eminent climate scientists sent a letter to the Washington State legislature that demolishes the bogus “carbon neutrality” argument advanced by proponents of the biomass incinerator proposed for the campus of Evergreen State College in Thurston County. This false “carbon neutrality” argument is also central to plans for other biomass incinerators proposed for Clallam, Jefferson and Mason Counties. This same false “carbon neutrality” claim is also aggressively promoted by the Washington Department of Natural Resources, The Washington Department of Commerce, the governor’s office, and the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency.

The February 2 letter—signed by Mark Harmon, Timothy Searchinger, and William Moomaw—states that the approach advocated in a December, 2010 Washington Department of Natural Resources study about carbon emissions from biomass combustion “makes it likely that greenhouse gas emissions will increase for many years where biomass replaces or displaces fossil fuels.” Further, the letter states this DNR study—claiming carbon neutrality for biomass combustion because of state forests-- is “an accounting scheme with no accountability.”
Specifically, the February 2 letter states, “…burning biomass emits 150 percent the carbon dioxide of coal, and 300 – 400 percent the CO2 of natural gas, per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated.”

Proponents of the biomass gasification incinerator proposed to replace the current natural gas boiler at Evergreen claim it will help the college toward its goal of carbon neutrality by 2020. Our best science shows this claim is false. Our best science shows the Evergreen incinerator would increase carbon emissions by as much as 400%, compared to the current boiler.

Please keep the moratorium in place for the full 12 months so you have time to review the many studies that show burning biomass emits more dangerous carbon dioxide pollution than burning fossil fuels, per unit of energy produced.

Thank you.

Duff Badgley

Seattle

SHELTON BLOG NOTE:

Link to Climatologists' Letter:
http://myweb.hcc.net/pkands/docs/Harmon_Searchinger_Moomaw Letter, 2-3-11.pdf

Link to No Biomass Burn

http://www.nobiomassburn.org/

Photo by Christine