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Why are US Forests Fueling UK Power Stations?
by s.e. smith May 31, 2013 Does the thought of shipping wood products from the US to the UK for burning in biomass power plants, a process that produces more emission than using coal for energy, make you scratch your head? How about if that same process is considered in line with the European Union’s standards on “renewable energy”? Roger Harrabin at the BBC just reported that this is exactly what power companies in the United Kingdom are doing, following the letter of the law without embracing its spirit, and devastating the beautiful forests of America’s Southeast in the process. The story of how and why this is happening provides a fascinating glimpse into the failings of environmental regulation, in addition to the bizarre contortions companies will use when it comes to keeping costs down at the cost of the environment. Let’s start with the how, which begins with Plum Creek, a major timber corporation in Georgia with substantial holdings in the region. Much of its land is cultivated in managed plantations, consisting of rows of densely packed trees encouraged to grow as straight as possible to produce straight, even boards, those with the highest value. These forests lack groundcover and habitat, and thus don’t provide a home for other plants and animals; they are effectively a gap in the environment. When the trees are thinned, the unwanted timber is processed into pulp, wood pellets and other products. Some of this unwanted timber makes its way to the UK, where it’s used by power plants like those maintained by Drax, a major energy company. At first glance, using biomass for power might make sense. It’s a theoretically renewable resource if managed properly, for example, because plants grow back and sequester carbon in the process. Many UK power plants are switching over or thinking about adopting it, making it a topic of discussion in the region. The truth is that biomass electricity generation is more complicated than meets the eye . Biomass can come from a number of sources, and there are important considerations when it comes to where it comes from, how it’s transported and how it’s handled. Unwanted timber products might sound like a good source of biomass, but that shifts when the larger picture becomes apparent. The plantations that timber comes from harm the environment, and as demand rises, more native forests and farmland may be taken over for tree plantations, which is not desirable. Furthermore, native timber forests are also being felled to satisfy the demand for biomass. And it can take half a century or more for trees to regrow and sequester an equivalent amount of carbon to what is burned. That might be good in the long term, but it doesn’t resolve the short term CO2 crisis. Environmentally speaking, the transportation costs can be immense. Timber products don’t magically make their way from Georgia to the hoppers of power plants: they need to be processed and moved between a number of locations along the way. At each stage, pollution is added to the chain, and the offset of planting more biomass may not make up for it. Thanks to subsidies, new environmental regulations and other measures intended to green power production, biomass is enjoying a spot in the sun, but it might not be deserved. In fact, the harms associated with it are a critical consideration that’s being eclipsed in some regions by the urgent need to comply with new regulations, and the desire to access subsidies. In a strange twist, subsidies in the UK are paying for the destruction of US forests, and this is being labeled as environmentally friendly! While biomass really does have tremendous potential, this case clearly illustrates that tighter regulations are required to ensure that at the same time fuel from renewable sources is promoted, those sources are carefully audited and evaluated to ensure they’re used responsibly. With the right framework, it should be possible to use biomass responsibly, and responsible uses definitely don’t include getting credits for shipping trees from the US to burn in UK power generation facilities. Read more: http://www.care2.com…l#ixzz2VRp9TPBE Continue reading
Hotter Planet Will Make Corn Ethanol Unviable
June 5, 2013 If climate change continues at its current pace, in 40 years a hotter planet will lower corn production by 7 percent while requiring a 9 percent increase in irrigation water, putting US biofuel goals out of reach, says a study by University of California, Davis and Rice University researchers. The study, published in the American Chemical Society’s journal, Environmental Science and Technology , says climate change will hinder US goals of producing 15 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022 to blend with fossil fuel, as per the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. Pedro Alvarez, the head of Rice’s civil and environmental engineering department and lead author of the study, says the cost of water will spiral and outweigh concerns about emissions from fossil fuels, creating a trade-off. For the study, Alvarez’s team built computer simulations based on crop data from the nation’s top 10 corn-producing states: Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Missouri and Kansas. They used estimates of carbon dioxide and other elements from a number of models, including the government’s Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model. The simulations predict crop outcomes over the next 40 years in relation to expectations of climate change. The study found that the Corn Belt states and the Great Lakes region rely primarily on rainfall that would change its patterns, necessitating a 5 percent to 25 percent increase in irrigation, which would in turn require water catchment infrastructure. In the Great Plains region including South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, which rely heavily on irrigation, drought has already begun affecting farmland. This will lead to a decline in crop yields, even with continued irrigation. The Rice study calculates that the production of 1 liter of gasoline requires 3 liters of water, whereas the production of 1 liter of corn ethanol requires between 350 and 1,400 liters of water from irrigation, depending on the location. This is not the first time Alvarez has raised the red flag — he has been questioning US support of biofuel as a means to cut vehicle emissions since 2010, when he raised the issue in a white paper published by Rice’s Baker Institute of Public Policy . In 2009, Alvarez estimated that it would take 50 gallons of water to grow enough corn in Nebraska to produce the ethanol needed to drive one mile, in an Environmental Science and Technology report. Although the plains and the western US are still in the worst drought in more than 50 years, in April Reuters reported that this year’s corn, soybean and wheat harvest will be better than the summer of 2012. Continue reading
EU States Seen Agreeing on Carbon-Fix Stance by ‘Early Fall’
By Ewa Krukowska – Jun 4, 2013 European Union nations may reach a negotiating position on a draft fix for the EU carbon market by “early fall” should the bloc’s Parliament approve the stopgap plan next month, according to Lithuania . “If there’s a mandate from the plenary in July” at the Parliament, “then we’ll work to reach a qualified majority position on backloading pretty soon, by early fall,” said Arunas Vinciunas, Lithuania’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU. His country takes over the EU’s rotating presidency next month. EU governments and the Parliament are considering a change to the region’s emissions-trading law to enable temporary curbs on the supply of carbon permits. The amendment is the first element of the carbon-market rescue plan, known as backloading, which would help prices rebound from record lows. EU carbon allowances for delivery in December rose as much as 4.9 percent to a seven-week high of 4.11 euros a metric ton on London ’s ICE Futures Europe exchange today. The contract slumped to an all-time low of 2.46 euros in April on concerns policymakers may fail to tackle a record glut of permits aggravated by an economic crisis. The EU carbon program imposes pollution limits on about 12,000 manufacturing companies and utilities in the region, including Germany ’s largest utility EON SE and steelmaker ArcelorMittal. The system, in which caps were set before the economic crisis, doesn’t allow any price floors or ceilings. After the slowdown reduced industrial production and cut into demand for pollution rights, the surplus of permits rose to around 2 billion metric tons last year, a level almost matching the annual supply, according to EU estimates. Delayed Auctions The backloading plan, which would delay auctions of some carbon permits, has divided governments, members of Parliament and industry. It was proposed last year by the European Commission, the EU’s regulatory arm, and needs approval by governments and the Parliament to be enacted. The Parliament’s environment committee is scheduled to recommend next steps on the draft measure on June 19 before the whole assembly holds a second vote on it on July 2. In the first ballot on April 16, lawmakers declined to support backloading and sent it to the environment panel for further talks. Should the assembly endorse the market fix next month, EU governments will need to adopt a position on the draft measure for talks with representatives of the Parliament on the final wording of the proposal. A potential deal in such negotiations, which are also known as trilogue because they also involve the commission, must be formally approved by the ministers and the assembly before it becomes a law. Merkel Call “Optimistically, we could start the trilogue in October,” Vinciunas said. While most member states favor backloading, they are short of the 255 votes needed in the EU weighted-ballot system to approve the proposal because several nations, including Germany, remain undecided. Chancellor Angela Merkel said last month she hoped Germany would be able to tackle the plan soon after elections on Sept. 22. Spain , which doesn’t have an official position on backloading yet, aims to decide on whether to back the plan in two weeks, its state secretary for environment Federico Ramos said on May 29. Poland, Cyprus and Greece , which have a total of 43 votes, have said they won’t back the measure. To stop it, they would have to form a blocking minority of 91 votes. Lithuania’s “optimism” is a good sign, because it indicates that, in its role as the EU presidency, the country is willing to put pressure on member states to take official positions on backloading even before German elections, said Konrad Hanschmidt, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London. Lithuania will chair meetings of climate officials from national governments and gatherings of the EU Council of Ministers in the second half of next year. “Nonetheless, it will be a difficult task to establish an official Council position before a new German cabinet has been elected,” Hanschmidt said. “That in turn would delay a potential trilogue.” To contact the reporter on this story: Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at ekrukowska@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lars Paulsson at lpaulsson@bloomberg.net Continue reading
