Energy bill gives boost to biomass

Loggers have long contended that trees are a renewable resource.

Now, the byproduct of logging — the unmerchantable tree tops and limbs that are normally left on the forest floor or burned as slash — could be classified as a renewable source of fuel to generate electricity. The news bolsters a surging interest in biomass energy plants, including one proposal under consideration in north Clark County.

Turning wood scraps into energy got a major boost Thursday with a new provision added to the House version of a major federal energy bill. The bill narrowly passed Friday.

U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, said the provision should provide a new incentive for federal forest managers to thin overcrowded forest threatened by wildfire, disease or insect infestation.

"We have in the Gifford Pinchot thousands of acres of forest that are in need of treatment," he said in a telephone interview Thursday evening. "Much of that material would be used for renewable biomass (energy)."

Baird worked with Oregon Reps. Greg Walden, a Republican, and Kurt Schrader, a first-term Democrat from the Portland area, to define logging slash and wood debris from national forests as a renewable energy source. The provision will need to be adopted by the Senate version of the energy bill before it becomes law.

The House bill excludes debris taken from national parks, wilderness areas, roadless areas or old growth.

"We will do it in a way that complies with fundamental environmental protections," Baird said. "No one needs to worry that we're going to clearcut this forest to supply biomass."

Clark County officials see the development as a major boost for their proposal to build a 20-megawatt biomass energy plant on the former site of a plywood mill in Chelatchie Prairie. County officials say steam turbines would be powered by slash that would otherwise burn or molder away on the forest floor.

Electricity generated by the plant could fetch a premium on the market as utilities try to meet voter-mandated requirements to purchase renewable forms of energy.

"That's huge," said Jim Vandling, the county forester who's overseeing the proposal.

Biomass plants could likewise benefit from a national cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Baird said.

In essence, the system establishes an overall "allowance" for greenhouse gas emissions. The allowance is capped and gradually lowered. Institutions then may trade carbon "credits," rewarding those that undershoot their emission allowances while punishing those that don't.

Producers of carbon-neutral energy could benefit from the system by effectively displacing power plants burning fossil fuels such as coal.

Biomass power plants have been historically associated with existing sawmills, which fuel steam turbines with the sawdust and bark shaved off logs. Demand for renewable energy has fueled a burgeoning interest in standalone biomass plants across the country, powered by fuels ranging from switch grass to agriculture waste.

Logging slash and overcrowded timber stands are considered a major potential fuel source in the Pacific Northwest.

Peter Moulton, bio-energy coordinator for the Washington state Department of Commerce, said it's important for biomass energy proposals such as Clark County's to be scaled appropriately. Some environmentalists worry that a proliferation of biomass plants may force overly aggressive thinning of forests.

"You want to make sure you're not creating this biomass-eating beast that needs to be fed," Moulton said.

In a related development, Baird worked to insert language declaring byproducts of the pulp- and paper-making process to be renewable fuel.

Paper mills, such as the Georgia-Pacific mill in Camas, commonly use byproducts such as black liquor and wood waste to fuel steam turbines generating electricity used on site. The practice reduces the mill's demand for energy generated elsewhere.

Now, they would get credit as renewable energy producers.

Baird said the provision could help to convince papermakers to maintain U.S. operations, rather than shifting production overseas.

"Many of our pulp and paper mills are right on the edge financially now," he said. "If they know that legislation is now moving forward that would allow them to gain value from the reuse of their waste products, that might incentivize some of these companies to keep their pulp and paper mills open."

Erik Robinson: 360-735-4551, or erik.robinson@columbian.com.