Burning Forests for a National Energy Program
Image by khteWisconsin
(>500 hits) Dear Wisconsin Politician:
Not only is the oil and gas industry playing a role in the Asian Carps’ steady progression into the Great Lakes (Chicago-land oil refineries want the canals open) but now they may also be launching an assault on our forests.
As you may recall, a few months back, Valero (one of the original “Seven Sisters”) bought the bio-fuels plant in Jefferson. Now, the Department of Agriculture is proceeding with a proposal in the Biomass Crop Assistance Program to allow forests to be cut so the trees can be burned to power new electrical generating facilities throughout the country.
This causes me concern. Ohio has already turned over State prairie conservation areas to Big Oil’s demand for switch grass. Using our forests in such a fashion seems reminiscent of the problems associated with the deforestation of tropical rainforests. For what it is worth, the planet is in the Holocene Mass Extinction. What is Wisconsin going to do? Can Wisconsin influence national policy initiatives?
Unfortunately, biomass burning is far from carbon neutral. Carbon dioxide released from the smokestack of a biomass facility warms the planet just like CO2 from a coal plant. And while an area logged to fuel a biomass facility may ultimately grow back, (10’s of thousands of acres of forest each year per facility) it takes decades or even centuries for a forest to recapture as much carbon as is lost when it’s logged. What is more, the climate is no longer optimally conducive to growing many trees species to maturity and the Climate is getting worse (is the tremendous discharge of methane being witnessed in the artic included in the consequences wrought by C02 of 350 ppm?).
Requests to stop subsidies to use trees to power our Nation’s cities may be directed to:
Director of CEPD
USDA FSA CEPD
Stop 0513
1400 Independence Ave., SW.
Washington, DC 20250
Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.
Please pass legislation so that the DNR Secretary is not a political appointment. Vote yes to override the Governor’s veto of AB 138.
Thank you,
Tom
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