On July 26, Franklin Regional Council of Governments hosted a workshop on Commercial Scale Wood Heat & Air Quality Impacts. In response, Don Ogden’s letter called consideration of increased use of modern wood energy systems a “climate crime scheme.”
Consider:
· In Vermont, wood chips or pellets are used to heat about 50 public schools, four college campuses, the state capital complex, five other state facilities, several municipal buildings in downtown Montpelier and 14 multi-family housing complexes.
· The Wildlands & Woodlands Project, a collaboration among university, land protection and environmental organizations, argues that “preserving intact forests increases future options for our region and resiliency in a time of rapid change” and that intact forests can “serve as a source of small-scale thermal biomass, replacing fossil fuels with a local and renewable fuel.”
· The nonprofit Northern Forest Center “promotes wood heat because it can deliver direct economic and community benefits for the region.”
·The Hubbard Brook Research Foundation states that “managing forests sustainably for biomass energy will mitigate climate change by substituting wood fuel for fossil fuels.”
All co-conspirators in Mr. Ogden’s “climate crime scheme?”
Charles Thompson
Massachusetts Forest Alliance
Pelham