Today the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its plan to defer, for three years, greenhouse gas permitting requirements for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from biomass-fired and other biogenic sources of emissions. This action responds to Washington State, congressional leaders’ and scientists’ concerns that biomass would be treated the same as fossil fuel-based energy sources in EPA greenhouse gas regulations that took effect this month. DNR and the Governor’s Office encouraged EPA to take a different approach in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in September 2010.
EPA’s decision insures that the carbon-sequestering benefits of trees will be duly recognized, and provides more certainty for companies seeking to create jobs and make investments in biomass technologies.
“EPA is to be commended for committing to a science-driven process that can credibly distinguish renewable forest biomass from other sources,” said Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark, in a news release this afternoon. “Washington State has been well served by the efforts of Governor Gregoire and our federal congressional delegation.”
In separate letters from the US House of Representatives and the US Senate raising concern over EPA’s initial approach, Washington Senator Patty Murray, and Representatives Dicks, Hastings, Reichert, Smith, Larsen, and McMorris Rodgers each contributed essential leadership in helping EPA arrive at a sensible outcome, the Commissioner said. A letter to Administrator Jackson signed by 114 scientists in July 2010, also cited the need to account for biomass fairly and accurately.
There is a fundamental difference between the nature of fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emissions – which have been “sequestered” in the earth for eons – and those that come from “biogenic” sources like forest waste. The CO2 in waste material leftover from trees harvested for lumber, for example, was recently removed from the atmosphere by the tree as it grew. More CO2 will be sequestered from the atmosphere in the future by the trees planted to replace those that were harvested.
Comparing biomass emissions with fossil fuels is like comparing buying groceries with your paycheck to buying them with your kids’ college fund money.
In many cases, the excess limbs, needles and bark would be burned in-place for disposal, left to rot, or burned in wildfires, emitting the CO2 in an uncontrolled way. Fewer net emissions can result when the material is instead used to produce energy.
According to today’s EPA announcement and correspondence to congressional members, this action includes three basic steps:
- EPA will conclude by July 1 an expedited rule-making to exclude all biomass CO2 emissions from the permitting program for the next three years.
- EPA will work with partners in the federal government and outside experts to conduct an in-depth scientific review of issues that EPA will need to address in designing a system to appropriately discount carbon-neutral biomass CO2 emissions to determine when permitting requirements kick in.
- EPA will use the results of that examination as the basis for a separate rule-making to establish a final determination process, estimated to conclude three years from now.
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