“One of the most contested parts of Sen. Jon Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act is the plan to log 10,000 acres a year for 10 years. On Feb. 24, Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell told Congress he wanted “approximately 20 10-year stewardship contracts offered in targeted areas around the country that could provide a steady supply of forest products.”
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In a paper published online on Feb. 3 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers described how they used a climate model to estimate the impact of 13 sectors of the economy from 2000 to 2100. They based their calculations on real-world inventories of emissions collected by scientists around the world, and they assumed that those emissions would stay relatively constant in the future. In their analysis, motor vehicles emerged as the greatest contributor to atmospheric warming now and in the near term. Cars, buses, and trucks release pollutants and greenhouse gases that promote warming, while emitting few aerosols that counteract it. Sphere: Related Content
Destruction of trees by the mountain pine beetle, combined with climate change and fire, makes for a dangerous feedback loop. Dead forests sequester less carbon dioxide. Burning forests release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. More CO2 adds to climate change, which raises temperatures, stresses forests, and makes bigger fires that much more likely. Montana faces an incredibly tough situation in years ahead. What to do with 3.9 million acres* of standing dead beetle-kill trees? Let them all rot? Burn? Sit back and let nature take its course because we can’t agree on a fair, environmentally and economically balanced strategy to do anything more? What about people and employment? Economic growth? Clear skies in the summer? Forests that are primed to explode? Or do we put our heads together and get to work converting at least some of this massive carbon abundance into new forms of clean-carbon energy we can all use, like green, renewable mixed alcohol transportation fuels? That’s what Bioroot Energy is doing. We invite your participation and support. Do a quick potential yield calculation based on 5 tons of thinnings and slash material per acre, which is a ridiculously low figure for thinned Montana forest land. That’s 19.5 million tons of biomass. (Some credible forest remediation estimates run 28-30 tons per acre.) Surely there is a gargantuan amount of sustainably harvestable biomass outside of protected wilderness and other sensitive areas to support a substantial biofuel industry. What could a cutting-edge biofuel industry do for western Montana? What could it do for you? Please let us know what you think. *Pine beetles infested 1.2 million acres of Montana forest in 2008 and 2.7 million acres in 2009, based on aerial surveys. Source: Montana Standard Sphere: Related ContentThe biofuels and biomass industries received excellent news Feb. 3, with the release of the renewable fuel standard (RFS2) final rule, the first report generated by President Barack Obama’s Biofuel Interagency Working Group, and the Biomass Crop Assistance Program proposed rule. Not exactly scintillating reading, unless you understand some of the regulatory issues that have long kept the biofuels and biomass industries from making faster progress. RFS2 is a significant step forward. Link to Biomass Magazine article. Sphere: Related ContentThis news can’t be good. This April, if anyone in southwest Montana wants to recycle newspaper, plastic, glass or cardboard, they’ll need to drive it all the way into to Missoula. Link to News Channel 13 article and a follow up editorial in the Ravalli Republic after the jump. Sphere: Related ContentThe United States needs to fundamentally rethink its policy of promoting ethanol to diversify its energy sources and increase energy security, according to a new policy paper by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Link to full Biofuel Daily article Sphere: Related Content |
Who will work with communities to research, plan, design and build clean and profitable, sustainable gasification to biofuel facilities in the next 10 years? We will. Become a member of this site. Not a joiner? Make a donation. Broke or unemployed? Work with us. Tell a friend about our mission. America has a clean energy future to build. Your support is requested and greatly appreciated. |
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