North Americans would rather burn non-renewable fossil fuels than renewable biomass. renewable energy source that’s replacing non-renewable fossil fuels. In North Amer-ica, people are increasingly finding fault with biomass as renewable energy. Biomass news has been peppered lately with com-munities rejecting biomass power plants. At least seven U.S. proposals have been scrapped due to pub-lic opposition. The main complaint is that people don’t want a “dirty” plant in their neighbourhood that they say will spew particulates and toxins into the air their children breathe. A sec-ondary concern is that large areas will be deforested to fuel these plants. Why do they think these things? Edu-cation and communication continue to be stumbling blocks. An example is the misin-terpretation of the recent Manomet study of biomass power production that had some media reports exclaiming that biomass is worse than oil (see Canadian Biomass Web Exclusives for the study summary). There are many claims about the ben-efits of biomass, but where are the hard data? A collection of facts and figures cov-ering combustion efficiency, emissions, sustainability, and harvesting regulations would go a long way in evaluating people’s claims. A good place to start would be with companies, institutions, and nations that have extensive biomass experience. Heat and power plants fired by biomass, recycled wood, and municipal solid waste dot the European landscape. These plants aren’t your average wood stove and meet specific pollution standards. In Sweden, 4 CanadianBIOMASS he contrast between Scandinavia and North America is stark. In Scandi-navia, biomass is becoming a major forest management has increased timber stocks, even with increasing biomass use. According to the Nordic Forest Owners’ Associations website, recent annual growth of Sweden’s timber stocks has been about 120 million m3 , with an-nual harvest of 85–90 mil-lion m3 , illustrating that Agency’s plan to regulate CO2 biomass is not synony-mous with deforestation. Swedish policy initia-tives support biomass heat and power by ban-ning flammable materials from landfills and provid-ing “green certificates” as supplemental income for renewable energy. Com-pare that with the U.S. Environmental Protection emissions from large-scale emitters like power plants, regardless of whether they use fossil fuels or biomass. At the federal level, Canada hasn’t done much, but the biomass indus-try can influence whether its future policy will more resemble USA’s or Europe’s. Canadian biomass policy should set standards and provide support for ef-ficient, sustainable biomass use. Stan-dards should define sustainable biomass harvests and compel users to demon-strate a suitable, long-term supply prior to initiating large-scale projects. Policies supporting bioenergy should encourage efficient biomass use by requiring power generation to provide the excess heat for industrial processes and heating, making it much more efficient. These types of policy, based on valid data, are the way to gain public approval and promote bio-mass use in North America. • Volume 11 Editor -Heather Hager (519) 429-3966 ext 261 [email protected] Group Publisher/Editorial Director-Scott Jamieson (519) 429-3966 ext 244 [email protected] Contributors -Colleen Cross, Gordon Murray, Reg Renner, Mark Ryans, Bill Tice, Stefanie Wallace Market Production Manager Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] National Sales Managers Tim Tolton [email protected] Ph: (514) 237-6614 Guy Fortin [email protected] Ph: (514) 237-6615 Fax: (514) 425-0068 P.O. Box 51058 Pincourt, QC J7V 9T3 Western Sales Manager Tim Shaddick [email protected] 1660 West 75th Ave Vancouver, B.C. V6P 6G2 Ph: (604) 264-1158 Fax: (604) 264-1367 Production Artist -Emily Sun Canadian Biomass is published six times a year: February, April, June, August, October, and December. Published and printed by Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. Printed in Canada ISSN 0318-4277 Circulation e-mail: [email protected] P.O. Box 51058 Pincourt, QC J7V 9T3 Subscription Rates: Canada -1 Yr $48; 2 Yr $85; 3 Yr $115 Single Copy -$9.00 (Canadian prices do not include applicable taxes) USA – 1 Yr $44 US; 2 Yr $75 US Foreign – 1 Yr $75 US Occasionally, Canadian Biomass magazine will mail information on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above.. No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission ©2010 Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. www.canadianbiomassmagazine.com
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