New Study Assesses Carbon Emissions Balance of Biopower in the Southeast

On February 14, the Biomass Energy Resource Center, Forest Guild, National Wildlife Federation, and the Southern Environmental Law Center announced "a new study of southeastern forests in the U.S. finds that in the long run, burning wood instead of fossil fuels to make electricity can reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but not soon enough to prevent worsening the conditions leading to global climate change."

The study, "Biomass Supply and Carbon Accounting for Southeastern Forests" , was conducted by the Biomass Energy Resource Center in partnership with the Forest Guild and Spatial Informatics Group on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation and the Southern Environmental Law Center.

According to the press release , "The study also shows that as the industry expands in the Southeast, biomass energy will increasingly come from cutting standing trees instead of using wood residues from sawmills and other sources, emphasizing the need to balance forest ecosystem health and related values, such as drinking water and wildlife habitat, with renewable energy objectives. Based on current trends in using wood for large-scale power plants and exporting fuel pellets to Europe, biomass energy in the Southeast is projected to produce higher levels of atmospheric carbon for 35 to 50 years compared to fossil fuels. After that, biomass will result in significantly lower atmospheric levels as regrowing forests absorb carbon from previous combustion."

A number of new scientific studies such as this have been released recently examining whether and how forests, forest management practices, forest products, and bioenergy from forests either contribute to or help mitigate climate change through emissions or carbon sequestration. Just in time. The EPA Science Advisory Board Biogenic Carbon Emissions Panel is beginning its review of the EPA’s proposed accounting framework for biogenic carbon emissions from industrial sources. For information and documents from the EPA Science Advisory Board Biogenic Carbon Emissions Panel, click here .

On November 9, 2011, Science Daily reported on a recent study by R. W. Malmsheimer, et al., "Managing Forests Because Carbon Matters: Integrating Energy, Products and Land Management Policy," published in a special supplement to the October/November issue of the Journal of Forestry. The authors find: "The United States needs many different types of forests: some managed for wood products plus other benefits, and some managed for non-consumptive uses and benefits. The objective of reducing global greenhouse gases (GHG) requires increasing carbon storage in pools other than the atmosphere. Growing more forests and keeping forests as forests are only part of the solution, because focusing solely on the sequestration benefits of the forests misses the important (and substantial) carbon storage and substitution GHG benefits of harvested forest products, as well as other benefits of active forest management."

October 23, 2011, Science Daily reported on a recent study by T. W. Hudiburg, et al., "Regional carbon dioxide implications of forest bioenergy production," published in Nature Climate Change . The international team examined 80 forest types in 19 ecoregions in the Pacific Northwest. They found that 16 of the ecoregions provided strong carbon sinks such that no combination of biomass removal for forest thinning and bioenergy production would meet or exceed the existing net carbon balance in the forests. However, in forests weakened by infestations, disease or drought, where net primary productivity is impaired, forest fire fuel reduction treatments combined with bioenergy production may be beneficial to the overall carbon balance. They conclude that, if the policy goal is to reduce carbon in the atmosphere as quickly as possible, it is better to leave the forests as they are, increasing net carbon sequestration at current rates of biomass removal, than to increase biomass removal for fuel load reduction with bioenergy production.

On July 14, 2011, Science Daily reported on a recent study by B. Lippke, et al., "Life Cycle Impacts of Forest Management and Wood Utilization on Carbon Mitigation: Knowns and Unknowns," published in Carbon Management. The authors find that "rather than just letting the forest sit there for a hundred or more years, the amount of carbon dioxide taken out of the atmosphere could be quadrupled in 100 years by harvesting regularly and using the wood in place of steel and concrete that devour fossil fuels during manufacturing, producing carbon dioxide."