I attended the recent Commercial Scale Wood Heat & Air Quality Impacts presentation sponsored by Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership and the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG). During the event, focused mainly on emissions associated with pellet and wood-chip burning, spokesmen for sectors of the pellet industry took the opportunity to claim that wood pellets are harvested sustainably, a statement I take issue with in this time of climate crisis.
The pellet and wood chip industries, and those who profit from them, are once again trying to foist biomass incineration upon us here in western Massachusetts. Once again they attempt to convince us that the process is “sustainable” and that it’s “renewable energy.”
If it was 1816 instead of 2016, I might agree on the latter, but it’s not. Science tells us we don’t have the luxury of decades to wait for cut forests and disturbed forest soil to regain all the CO2 lost to the atmosphere during harvesting, transporting, processing and incinerating the wood.
Does that sound sustainable to you?
There is a scheme afoot to vastly increase the use of biomass in our region. To install boilers, build pellet facilities and, surprise, greatly increase cutting down our woodlands, forests that are the lungs of the planet, forests that help us to deal with climate chaos. There is also talk about plans to export pellets overseas.
Think about that. Frankly, I’m surprised that FRCOG would associate itself with such a climate crime scheme and can only wonder if they might be in denial about the crisis we and future generations face.
Don Ogden
Greenfield