Wood-burning facilities will not be regulated under the Environmental Protection Agency’s new greenhouse gas regulations that went into effect earlier this month, the federal agency announced last week.
EPA said it will defer further action on the matter for three years while it analyzes whether the burning of wood waste to produce electricity, among other uses, can really be considered “green.”
The move came after proponents of biomass energy, including Washington state officials and some members of Congress, protested the inclusion of biomass projects under the new regulations.
They said that wood-burning facilities should not be treated the same as those that burn fossil fuels because by burning wood waste they are “carbon-neutral” and add no additional carbon to the atmosphere.
The EPA move means the North Olympic Peninsula’s two biomass energy projects at the Nippon Paper Industries USA’s Port Angeles mill and Port Townsend Paper Corp. are off the list of facilities that must comply with the new regulations — at least for the next three years.
Both burn wood waste now and expect to have upgraded facilities online sometime this year. Nippon plans a new boiler, while the Port Townsend mill intends to install a new steam generator.
Nippon administrators said they expected their $71 million biomass energy project would comply.
Still, said Harold Norlund, mill manager, the decision is good news.
Pleased with announcement
“We are very pleased with the EPA announcement,” he said.
“Certainly, we believe that it is common sense. This is exactly what we’ve been saying and what we’re doing here.”
Nippon’s new boiler would produce steam to make telephone book paper and newsprint, and generate up to 20 megawatts of electrical power. The company then could sell credits for the electrical power.
A call requesting comment from Port Townsend paper mill officials was not returned.
The state Department of Ecology granted the Port Townsend mill Oct. 25 a “notice of construction” permit for its $55 million project, which would generate up to 24 megawatts of electrical power.
The EPA’s new greenhouse gases rules are intended to improve fuel efficiency among large emitters of Earth-warming gases and are aimed at facilities that emit more than 100,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year.
Biomass opponents
Opponents of the two Peninsula projects were not pleased with the change.
Diana Somerville, a Port Angeles resident and spokeswoman for environmental groups opposed to both projects, said the decision is another example of the United States “backing away from important controls to climate change.”
“I think that industry pressure got to them,” she said.
“I think they’re not standing up for the health of the public.”
Gretchen Brewer, a member of Port Townsend AirWatchers, also spoke of industry pressure.
“I think it’s a partial capitulation to pressure from businesses,” she said. “We’re all unhappy to see that.
“Our atmosphere can’t handle more carbon dioxide being poured into it.”
However, she said, it is only a delay.
“It doesn’t exempt the businesses from meeting the standards. It just defers enforcement for three years,” she said.
“It doesn’t let them off the hook for meeting the new greenhouse gas regulations.”
Port Townsend AirWatchers is one of five environmental groups appealing the permit for Port Townsend paper’s biomass energy project to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board.
It is also one of seven groups that plan to appeal the Nippon project to the state pollution control board in the spring.
The other groups are Olympic Forest Coalition, Olympic Environmental Council, No Biomass Burn of Seattle, the Center for Environmental Law and Policy of Spokane, the World Temperate Rainforest Network and the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club.
The Center for Environmental Law and Policy of Spokane and the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club did not join the appeal of the Port Townsend mill’s facility.
No other facilities on the North Olympic Peninsula fell under the EPA’s new greenhouse gas regulations, according to data from the state Department of Ecology and Olympic Region Clean Air Agency.
________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
