Tag: renewable energy

  • Energy Justice Now: A Forum for Dirty Energy Opponents

    Since 1999, Energy Justice Network has worked with communities across the U.S. to oppose every kind of dirty energy facility — from coal and natural-gas fired plants, to nuclear reactors, to biomass and trash incinerators — to protect human health and the natural world that keeps us alive. While countless pollution pushers have been run…

  • NEW STUDY: Air Pollution Good for Lungs

    HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY! – by Fiske Sterling, April 1, 2014. Source: TBN News A new study out of Miskatonic University in Rhode Island has concluded that air pollution, specifically particulate matter, can repair damaged lung tissue. The scientific consensus up until this point had been that particulate matter — the byproduct of combustion from…

  • Are Dirty Energy Opponents NIMBY? Proving Industry Wrong

    It’s typical for energy developers facing community resistance to proposed facilities to try to discredit opponents by calling them NIMBY (Not in My Backyard), steering the argument away from health and environmental impacts to simply one of aesthetics. Corporate profiteers argue that local opposition doesn’t have a problem with a given energy technology itself — so long…

  • EPA Proposal Classifies Wood Fuel from Construction, Demolition

    [Biomass industry pushing for even less regulation of their dirtiest fuel source. -Ed.] – by Erin Voegele, March 27, 2014. Source: Biomass Magazine Biomass industry On March 27, the U.S. EPA released a proposed rule to amend its Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials regulation under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The NHSM rule was finalized in February…

  • Nippon Temporarily Shut Down Because of Biomass Fuel Problems at Power Plant

    – by Paul Gottlieb, February 27, 2014. Source: Peninsula Daily News PORT ANGELES — Fuel-system problems with Nippon Paper Industries USA’s newly expanded biomass cogeneration plant have caused a two-week shutdown of the mill, according to a union official. Darrel Reetz, vice president of the Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers Local 155, said Thursday…

  • Whole Trees 90% of Rothschild, WI Biomass Incinerator Fuel

    – by Kevin Murphy, February 26, 2014. Source: Wasau Daily Herald wausaudailyherald The recently built power plant at Domtar paper mill is getting only 10 percent of its fuel from logging waste, which originally was supposed to supply nearly all of the plant’s energy needs. The 50-megawatt, $255 million power plant went online in November to provide steam for Domtar’s…

  • Some Biofuel Feedstock Estimates ‘Overstating’ Yields

    – March 4, 2014. Source: Environmental Leader Estimates for potential biofuel feedstock crop yields from some widely cited research studies may overstate those yields by as much as 100 percent, according to research by the International Council on Clean Transportation. One key factor in developing a sustainable biofuels policy is to realistically estimate the amount of biomass that can…

  • Biomass Industry Needs to Prepare for Water Constraints

    – by Phil Ciciora, March 5, 2014. Source: University of Illinois News Office Debates surrounding the sustainability of bioenergy have emerged in recent years relating to water quality and quantity, and those debates will only grow louder as big urban areas in the U.S. start running out of water and environmental groups and the Environmental Protection…

  • New Law Will Make Biomass Heating Cheaper in Massachusetts

    – by Shira Schoenberg, December 1, 2014, Mass Live A new law that goes into effect in January will make it cheaper to use renewable energy to heat a home – and could provide a boost to the wood industry in rural parts of Western Massachusetts. “This is going to help (renewable) technologies compete with and…

  • Commercial Use of Wood Energy is Heating Up

    – by Michael Mccord, November 26, 2014, New Hampshire Business Review New Hampshire’s recently released 10-year energy strategy acknowledged an ongoing fact of life for the state’s commercial and residential sectors: New Hampshire imports 100 percent of its fossil fuels and natural gas. According to the NH Wood Energy Council, New Hampshire pays more than $1…