For Immediate Release
November 5, 2019
Contact: Kathryn Phillips 916-893-8494 (mobile)
SACRAMENTO—Sierra Club California released a new report today that provides data-specific evidence that California can and must move away from polluting incineration to deal with woody forest waste.
The report, entitled Moving Beyond Incineration, analyzes various ways to dispose of or use woody biomass that produces less pollution than incineration and creates sustainable jobs. The report estimates that, given existing policies, about 279,261 tons of biomass could be produced annually over the next 5 years through state-funded forest thinning and community protection projects. In recent years, this sort of biomass waste has been directed towards existing high-polluting incinerators that are propped up by government policies.
The report considers five different ways to use or dispose of biomass that does not include incineration. The analysis shows that each of these methods results in products that provide beneficial uses to people or the environment while also creating less environmental damage than incineration does.
“Others have produced lists of alternatives to biomass incineration, but this is the first study that we know of that attaches specific data to the alternatives,” said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California. “This analysis shows how the state can move away from propping up polluting incinerators by encouraging investment in other biomass uses.”
The five different methods described and analyzed include:
- Wood chips, mulch and shavings;
- Posts and pole manufacture;
- Fiberboard, particle board and oriented strand board;
- Mass timber; and
- Furniture and finished carpentry (including with beetle-infected wood).
Some of these methods are already employed at a small scale in California. However, with the abundant biomass generated and expected to be generated in the future, scaling up the infrastructure to support these methods will be necessary.
While these methods are not free of environmental impacts, their impacts are far less than biomass incineration. Current biomass incinerators benefiting from state policies emit more CO2 than gas power plants. The incinerators also produce electricity that is more expensive than clean, renewable energy and tend to displace the development of renewables.
Biomass incinerators in California are highly polluting and antiquated and are dead last on the list of best uses for forest residues,” said Daniel Barad, Sierra Club California’s organizer for its campaign against biomass incineration. “Unfortunately, a lack of imagination led the state to require ratepayers to subsidize these emission-belchers to the tune of $76.8 million dollars.”
The report, Moving Beyond Incineration, can be found at Sierra Club California’s website here. To view the fact sheet, Moving Beyond Incineration by the Numbers, click here.
“We hope this will help inform state agencies and the legislature and help shift the focus for biomass use toward more sustainable and less polluting methods,” said Phillips.
Sierra Club California is the legislative and regulatory advocacy arm of the 13 Sierra Club chapters in California, representing more than 500,000 members and supporters statewide.