FROM OUR FRIENDS AT DOGWOOD ALLIANCE:
What is biomass?
Biomass is an ambiguous term that is also called bioenergy, wood pellets, woody biomass, and more. No matter the name, it means burning trees in power stations for electricity.
For over a decade, the biomass industry has operated on a foundation of faulty logic. They claim it’s a renewable and carbon neutral form of energy. But biomass releases climate warming carbon into the atmosphere every step of the way. The industry cuts down forests of the Southeastern US and converts them to pellets. They ship our forests overseas. Then they burn our forests in foreign power stations as an alternative to coal.
THE WORST PART IS THEY DO THIS ON OUR DIME. BIOMASS COMPANIES RECEIVE BILLIONS WORLDWIDE IN RENEWABLE ENERGY SUBSIDIES FROM TAXPAYERS.
This industry couldn’t survive without taxpayer dollars. Governments throw money at biomass companies because they think biomass can help their countries reach renewable energy goals. All the while biomass is pushing those countries and the rest of the world further away from a clean energy future.
What are the impacts of biomass?
The biomass industry destroys rich, biodiverse forests and replaces them with single species plantations. Quickly converting carbon sinks into carbon emitters. These plantations can take decades to store the same amount of carbon as mature forests. Decades we don’t have.
Our planet desperately needs viable renewable energy now so that we can move away from fossil fuels.
It increases carbon emissions, forest destruction, and harms us all by increasing pollution and weakening climate resiliency.
Unfortunately, the demand for biomass is rapidly growing. What was meant to be a transitional energy source has unleashed a Pandora’s box of climate catastrophe. Large scale forest destruction in the Southern US hurts climate resiliency worldwide. Losing a forest may be a local issue, but burning a forest is a global one.
