Wisconsin Governor Wants to Cut $8 Million from Bioenergy Research

- by Thomas Content and Lee Bergquist, February 28, 2015, Journal Sentinel

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"405","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","style":"width: 300px; height: 189px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","title":"Photo: Journal Sentinel"}}]]In an about-face from his first term, Gov. Scott Walker wants to eliminate funding for a University of Wisconsin-Madison renewable energy research center that has played a key role in helping land one of its biggest government grants ever.

In his budget, Walker is proposing to eliminate $8.1 million over two years — a total of 35 positions — from a bioenergy program.

The reductions are separate from his proposal to cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin System over the next two years.

The research program, founded in 2009, is charged with developing technologies to convert wood chips, corn stalks and native grasses to homegrown sources of power.

Fire at Brand New Biomass Incinerator in Rothschild, Wisconsin

-April 11, 2014. Source: Wasau Daily Herald

ROTHSCHILD — Firefighters extinguished a blaze that ignited in a dust collector at the Domtar biomass power plant early Friday morning.

Rothschild Fire Department crews responded to the plant just before 4:30 a.m., said Chief Marc Hill. When crews got to the plant, a fire was burning inside the dust collector and smoke was coming out of the structure. No one was injured in the blaze, but it took fire crews about three hours to completely put out the fire.

A ladder truck from the SAFER fire station in Weston and its crew also responded to the fire, Hill said.

The fire apparently started after some wood became caught in a giant shredder called a hog, Hill said. The friction caused by the material and machinery created heat and sparks, which were pulled into the dust collector through a collection system. The fire started quickly in the dust collector, Hill said.

DTE Energy: Black Soot Irks Residents of Cassville, Wisconsin

- by Jeff Montgomery, March 22, 2014. Source: THOnline.com

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"168","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"225","style":"width: 333px; height: 266px; float: left; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;","title":"Photo: THOnline.com","width":"300"}}]]CASSVILLE, Wis. - Linda Hulst said she began noticing the soot shortly after a nearby biomass plant started operations.

For three years, the black, charcoal-like matter has sprinkled her property. "Every fresh snow is covered with it," she said. "It gets on our deck, on our furniture, on the hoods of our cars."

Hulst and her husband, Ron, have owned and operated Eagles Roost Resort since 1977. They also make their home on the property, 1034 Jack Oak Road.

Hulst said she is certain that the soot-like substance results from processes occurring at DTE Energy's Stoneman Station biomass plant, 716 Jack Oak Road.