Readers are cautioned that New Hampshire is experiencing a climate crisis and that we need to further reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and stop using biomass (wood chips) to generate electricity in a recent opinion piece titled "We Can't Burn Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis," published in the Concord Monitor on April 2. Ironically, what overlooks is the fact that eliminating biomass power will result in a rise in the use of fossil fuels in this area.
According to ISO-New England, as of this writing, the New England region receives 1.6% of its energy from biomass, 66% from natural gas, and 18% from nuclear power. Although those percentages change daily, biomass has been and probably will continue to represent a relatively small portion of New England's overall energy mix. However, biomass's relatively modest contribution to the electrical grid has a disproportionately positive impact on the environment from a climate perspective. This advantage is tripled.
First off, this power is almost "carbon neutral," according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Second, by creating markets for low-grade timber, the fuel for this power promotes sustainable forestry. Third, this power is truly renewable because New Hampshire continues to grow more trees each year than are harvested (according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Inventory Analysis).
Although the science underlying carbon accounting, sequestration, and storage are complex, it is crucial to remember a few very fundamental concepts. First, burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, or gas releases previously underground carbon that has been trapped in the atmosphere for millions of years. However, since forests are able to absorb and store carbon, the carbon they release when they burn is a product of recent atmospheric recirculation and is part of a continuous cycle.
Because of this, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared in April 2018 that biomass from managed forests would be treated as carbon neutral when used to produce energy at stationary sources.
According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a sustainable forest management approach that aims to maintain or increase forest carbon stocks while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fiber, or energy from the forest will produce the largest sustained mitigation benefit.
The fuel for biomass power is made from low-grade trees that are either byproducts of other wood processing facilities or are harvested as part of forest management projects, (e.g., sawmills). It is untrue and shows a lack of understanding of forest management and the timber markets to claim that owners of forestland only cut their trees for burning.
The fact is that felling high-value trees for biomass simply doesn't make financial sense for loggers or landowners. Instead, the trees used to produce electricity are the sick, deformed, culled trees that must be removed to make room for stronger, healthier trees. Sustainable forest management isn't profitable without markets for low-grade wood, which forces landowners, loggers, and forestry professionals to make challenging decisions about how to manage their timberlands. (seek alternative revenue sources, subdivided sales, etc.).
It is widely acknowledged that keeping forests intact and encouraging them to produce more wood is the defense against climate change. One of the best ways to carry out this plan is to maintain markets that permit sustainable timberland ownership. Another crucial tactic is actively managing timberland to increase the growth of wood.
According to the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) of the U.S. Forest Service, between 2015 and 2020, New Hampshire's forests gained 89 million cubic feet in net growth (312 million cubic feet of timber were added and 223 million cubic feet were lost due to harvesting and natural mortality). There is no clearer way to illustrate how sustainable forest management reduces carbon emissions.
The advantages of biomass power for rural economies are also worth mentioning, especially because "overburdened communities" have been used to raise the issue of "environmental justice." One of the pillars of the state's forest products industry is low-grade timber markets. According to the 2020 N.H. Forest Action Plan (FAP), this industry supports nearly 12,000 jobs overall and generates $1.5 billion in direct economic output. There are approximately 7,200 direct jobs associated with this industry. The majority of these jobs are located in the state's rural areas.
Additionally, the question of whether state policy should support the operation of a current biomass power plant in Berlin is being debated in the NH Legislature. The city has frequently outlined the financial advantages they receive from this power plant in testimony and written materials.
Take a step back and consider the big picture if you are genuinely worried about the climate crisis and the state's economy.
Yes, the state's energy mix will benefit from the addition of solar and wind power. However, if our forests are no longer managed sustainably, are destroyed by development, and the wood chips used to generate electricity are left in the forest to rot, the biomass from wood processing facilities is landfilled, any gains from this will be fleeting, and lost, and fossil fuel will be burned in their place.
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