economics

Biomass Carpetbaggers

- by Tom Tolg, August 20, 2013. Source: The Recorder  

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"104","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"298","style":"width: 300px; height: 186px; float: left; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px;","width":"480"}}]]If Editor Blagg’s pro-biomass column was a meal I’d say it was a thin gruel of tainted leftovers along with a fruit salad loaded with sour grapes. 

Leaving the dinner table, we stumble onto “carpetbaggers” who Mr. Blagg identifies with the anti-biomass folks. If you Google “carpetbaggers,” you find that the term refers to post-Civil War quick-buck artists, or entrepreneurs if you wish, from outside the South, much like that slick-talking Matt Wolfe who envisioned profiting handsomely while clear-cutting hundreds or thousands of acres and adding more “particulates” to the air we breathe.

New York Biomass Incinerator Awaits $100 Million Handout

August 17, 2013, Source: Mid Hudson News Network

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"103","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"120","style":"width: 101px; height: 120px; float: left; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px;","width":"101"}}]]The Taylor Biomass waste-to-energy project has had the support of U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-Cold Spring, since his candidacy for Congress last year.

The Orange County facility is awaiting a $100 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy and the freshman lawmaker said Thursday that the Obama Administration is now taking note of the project.

Gainesville, FL Biomass Settlement Offer Would Alter Contract with City

- by Christopher Curry, August 15, 2013. Source: The Gainesville Sun 

The biomass plant company has sent Gainesville its terms for dropping a $50 million arbitration counterclaim and some city officials say the terms are unacceptable.

The Gainesville Renewable Energy Center seeks no money to settle. Instead, GREC, which filed its counterclaim on the grounds that the city’s arbitration claim was an opportunistic attempt to force contract renegotiations, wants a series of modifications to the city’s contract to purchase power from the plant.

Some of the requested changes would make it easier for the company to sell the plant. Another requested change would require that the city notify GREC of any potential legal claim for breach of contract within 45 days of discovering the facts that would serve as the foundation of that claim. Otherwise, the city would lose its right to bring the legal claim.

Cellulosic Ethanol Refinery Proposal Loses Major Partner 

- by Warren Johnston, August 11, 2013. Source: Valley News

[For more information on this facility please read "Cellulosic Ethanol: A Bio-Fool's Errand"]

Mascoma Corp., the Lebanon-based developer of cutting-edge biofuels technology, has lost its major partner in a proposed $233 million ethanol plant in Michigan. 

Although Mascoma did not confirm the departure of the Texas-based energy giant Valero Energy Corp. and its promised $50 million investment, the company did say in an emailed statement Friday that a funding partner is being sought to build the Kinross, Mich., facility and another plant in Alberta, Canada. 

Biomass Moratorium for Brevard County, North Carolina

- by Kimberly King, August 2, 2013. Source: WLOS

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"94","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 314px; float: left; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px;"}}]]Monday night at the Brevard county courthouse the gallery broke in in raucous applause after Transylvania Commissioners voted for a one-year moratorium that effectively stopped plans for a Biomass plant on private property in Penrose at the airport. 

"They listened to us," said Kevin Glenn, with the anti-plant grass roots group, People for Clean Mountains. "A 12-month moratorium is what we need." 

"We heard nothing from the developer(Renewable Developers Penrose LLC) at all, said Sandy Briggs, who came to support the group. "They had many chances." 

Biomass Fuel Subsidies to be Capped in U.K.

- by Roger Harrabin, July 16, 2013. Source: BBC

The government is turning away from its controversial policy of subsidising UK power stations to generate electricity from burning wood.

It is proposing that subsidies for bespoke biomass burning plants should be capped at 400 MW.

It will end subsidies for biomass burning in existing stations by 2027.

There was an outcry in May when the BBC revealed that millions of tonnes of wood were being shipped from the USA to help meet Britain's renewables targets. 

Indiana Citizens Skeptical of Trash Incinerator

- by Mitchell Kirk, June 26, 2013. Source: Pharos-Tribune 

A group of Logansport citizens is holding a question-and-answer session with energy, environmental and business leaders tonight to discuss the city’s power plant project.

“Our goal is to foster discussion among key people in the community who may not yet be committed to the Pyrolyzer (trash-to-electricity) proposal and would like more information on lowering electric rates now,” said Mercedes Brugh, who organized the event, in a statement.

The panel will include Morton Marcus, retired director of the Indiana Business Research Center; Bradley Angel, executive director of San Francisco-based Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice; and Mike Ewall, founder and director of Philadelphia-based Energy Justice Network. 

Biomass and Other Transition Fuels are a False Solution

- by Karen Orr, Energy Justice Network

Clean, truly renewable energy could fully power a large electric grid 99.9 percent of the time by 2030, according to recent research published by the Journal of Power Sources.

This can be done economically and without government subsidies if a well-designed combination of solar power, wind power and storage in batteries and fuel cells is implemented.

Biomass/incineration, ethanol, nuclear power and other false solutions have been promoted as “transition” fuels or technologies, yet the capital-intensive nature of these technologies make transition impossible. 

Largest Biomass Incinerator in the World Shuts Down

- by Jan Hromadko, July 8, 2013. Source: Euro Investor 

RWE AG (RWE.XE) said Monday it has abandoned plans to extend the operating life of the world's largest biomass-fired power plant, citing poor energy demand, low power prices and a heavy debt load for forcing the German utility to cut back on spending.

The 750-megawatt power plant in Tilbury, located east of London on the river Thames, is now expected to be shut down at the end of October, the company said.

The former coal-fired Tilbury plant was converted into a 100% biomass-fueled facility in 2010 in anticipation that it could operate longer than presently allowed under European Union climate protection legislation, known as the Large Combustion Plant Directive, or LCPD.

EU: Oil, Biofuel Companies May Have Colluded on Price Distortion

May 14, 2013. Source: Frances Robinson, Wall Street Journal