Mich.’s biomass rush sparks air quality, forest depletion worries

TRAVERSE CITY — A rush to meet new requirements for renewable energy has spurred plans for wood-burning power plants in Northern Michigan, but critics argue that a surge in wood-based generation could deplete the state’s forests and generate hazardous air pollution.

Biomass, including wood, is considered a renewable energy source under Public Act 295 — the 2008 law that requires utilities to get 10 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2015.

Wood-based electricity generation makes up a major portion of the state’s existing renewable energy supply — Consumers Energy is now at 4 percent renewable and the majority of that comes from wood-fired power plants — so it may not surprise that several new wood-fired power plants have been proposed for Northern Michigan.

Traverse City’s municipally-owned power company has a renewable energy goal that is more ambitious than the state’s — 30 percent renewable by 2020.

In December, Traverse City Light and Power had settled on biomass generation and was poised to buy land that would serve as a building site for a wood-fired power plant, but purchase plans were tabled after locals publicly complained that wood-fired plants would create dangerous air pollution and deplete area forests.

“It is unimaginable folly to think that burning things is going to stop global warming,” said Traverse City resident and filmmaker Jeff Gibbs, an outspoken opponent of biomass power. “Everybody has been talking renewables and biomass but nobody actually knew what biomass is.”

“It takes 13,000 tons of wood to produce one megawatt of power, to scale this up to a useful amount of power is going to decimate our forests.”

Gibbs was also concerned about the effect such deforestation would have on tourism, which is a major economic contributor to the region. “Having logging trucks rolling down the roads and putting up smokestacks is not going to help the area’s tourist economy,” he said.

Though biomass is considered carbon neutral and is designated a renewable energy source under state law, a recent study by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy found that burning biomass can generate more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels if they damage the ability of the landscape to act as a carbon sink. Avoiding that, the study suggests, requires using short-term renewable forms of biomass rather than forests.

“If biofuels are to help mitigate global climate change,” the study’s author wrote, “our results suggest that they need to be produced with little reduction of the storehouses of organic carbon in the soils and vegetation of natural and managed ecosystems. Degraded and abandoned agricultural lands could be used to grow native perennials for biofuel production, which could spare the destruction of native ecosystems and reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions.”

Last month, as opponents of wood-burning power plants organized a ballot initiative to limit biomass plant emissions, Massachusetts officials suspended consideration of biomass plant permits and commissioned a study on their carbon neutrality and environmental impacts in the Bay State.

The Massachusetts Medical Society and the state chapter of the American Lung Association issued statements against biomass burning power plants on the grounds that their emissions pose unacceptable public health risks.

“The health of area residents and those in surrounding communities could be adversely affected by thousands of pounds of air pollutants emitted into the air daily, including nitrogen oxide or NOx,” American Lung Association of Massachusetts CEO Jeffrey E. Seyler wrote in a public letter opposing a proposed biomass plant. “NOx is a key component of ground level ozone, or smog, and is a lung irritant.”

Last week, Traverse City Light and Power stepped away from the biomass rush and instead conducted a study session on how to choose a renewable energy source and how to achieve public buy-in for that plan.

But 37 miles away in Mancelona, a 36-megawatt wood-fired power plant has been proposed by Mancelona Renewable Resources LLC, a subsidiary of the oil and natural gas exploration company Jordan Exploration.

Paul Schleusener of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Quality Division said a permit for that plant could be issued within weeks.

Mancelona is facing severe economic stress. The auto parts manufacturer that was the town’s major employer closed last year. Yet, despite the community’s pressing need for jobs, at a public hearing on the company’s air permit application last month, locals focused on potential environmental problems associated with the plant.

The town is also the site of an immense plume of groundwater contamination, and locals raised concerns that plant operations could spread groundwater contamination into the air and that emissions and truck traffic associated with the proposed plant could further degrade the area.

“I’ve seen too many lies in here,” area resident Stuart A. Rogers Sr. said during the hearing, “ … these plants don’t produce 30 jobs.”

“If this was a safe form of producing electricity, and economical, I’m not against it, but I believe we have potential problems here and it is not economical, wood can be used for many things. This is no better than coal.”

Mancelona resident Amelia Wilks said that she was worried about environmental oversight for the plant.

“I live within two miles of where they want to build the wood-fired plant,“ said Amelia Wilks. “That is right across from the Tar Lake site that was on the hazardous waste list. They still haven’t cleaned up the plume.”

“The air quality is of great concern to me,“ Wilks said. “If they do go over the emissions standards is somebody going to run down the road and tell me that I should leave or that I shouldn’t be breathing my air?”

Is there enough wood?

Ben Brower, project manager for Mancelona Renewable Resources, said that the fuel for the plant would come from state forest, private land and federal land.

Construction could begin next year, he said, and the plant could be up and running by 2013.

Brower said that a fuel study commissioned by his company indicated that the plant would use 6 percent of the annual growth of the forests within a 60-mile radius.

“Our plan tells us that there is an overabundance of wood right now,” he said. “I don’t foresee a problem if Traverse City builds biomass plants — our woodsheds would overlap but we don’t think that will be a problem.”

Gary Melow, of Michigan Biomass said there are five wood burning power plants already operating in Northern Michigan.

He is not as optimistic about the availability of affordable wood.

“We think it is premature to put in new biomass facilities,” he said. “Nobody is taking a good hard look at what forest resources can sustain.”

Melow said that plants typically draw wood from a 50-mile radius, but have recently have to expand to sourcing wood from as far as 70 miles away.

The proposed new plants in Mancelona and Traverse City will lead to serious competition for forest products in Northern Michigan, he said, and will drive prices up and create incentives for the burning of logs rather than wood waste products.