The federal government’s first greenhouse gas regulations, which come into effect today, have caused a stir among some biomass proponents who believe that wood-to-energy projects should be exempt, while those opposed to the burning of wood waste for power applaud the new requirements.
Biomass energy projects are planned on the North Olympic Peninsula at Nippon Paper Industries USA in Port Angeles and the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill. Both burn wood waste now and expect to have upgraded facilities online sometime next year.
Nippon plans a new boiler, while the Port Townsend mill intends to install a new steam generator.
The new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, known as the “tailoring rule,” are intended to improve fuel efficiency among large emitters of Earth-warming gases.
The rule targets facilities that emit more than 100,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year.
Biomass facilities are affected by the new rules, although proponents among the forest industries say they should be excluded because they consider them to be “carbon-neutral.”
David Tenny, National Alliance of Forest Owners president, said biomass burning, unlike the burning of fossil fuels, helps keep greenhouse gas emissions in check since it emits carbon that had been absorbed by trees.
The burning of fossil fuels on the other hand, he said, resurrects greenhouse gas that would otherwise be kept underground.
“If you consider just the nature of the carbon cycle . . . carbon that we’re using for energy was recently removed from the atmosphere,” Tenny said.
Peninsula residents opposed to burning wood waste to produce energy say the EPA was right to place biomass facilities under the new regulations.
Port Angeles resident Diana Somerville, a spokeswoman for environmental groups opposed to biomass projects on the Peninsula, and Gretchen Brewer of Port Townsend Air Watchers said burning of wood puts the carbon back into the atmosphere much faster than if it had been left to rot.
“Basically, the carbon that’s emitted will be emitted over a short range of time into a localized place,” Brewer said.
Slash from logging sites, a fuel source for biomass boilers, is sometimes disposed of by being burned on site in large piles. Biomass proponents say its better to burn it in a boiler than in the woods.
Brewer said she doesn’t think that slash burning happens often enough to make a difference, and added it would be better to chip all slash and spread it over a logging site to return nutrients to the soil.
Tenny said it needs to be kept in mind that trees are not being cut down simply to burn.
“Most of the time they are using materials that are byproducts anyway and you’re using them in a way that offsets the use of fossil fuels,” he said.
The environmental manager for Nippon Paper Industries USA in Port Angeles said he’s not worried about the new regulations.
Paul Perlwitz said the mill on Marine Drive will fall under the new regulations but he expects that the plant’s plans for a new biomass boiler will easily meet EPA’s new requirements.
“We don’t have any concerns,” Perlwitz said, adding that the new boiler will be far more efficient.
“We think we already meet the requirements under the tailoring rule.”
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.
The state Department of Ecology granted the Port Townsend mill on Oct. 25 a “notice of construction” permit for its $55 million project, which would generate up to 24 megawatts of electrical power.
A call for a request for comment from the Port Townsend mill was not returned. The company has a policy of not speaking with the media.
While the tailoring rule goes into effect today, the new regulations are being phased in by EPA.
For Nippon, the regulations could go into effect in July if it has yet to receive an air emissions permit for its $71 million biomass energy project or at the end of 2011 when it renews its five-year general operating permit with the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency — or ORCAA, Perlwitz said.
The Port Angeles and Port Townsend mills are the largest emitters of greenhouse gases on the Peninsula and the only facilities in Clallam and Jefferson counties that exceed the 100,000-ton threshold, according to ORCAA and Ecology.
Nippon in 2009 emitted 137,143 tons of carbon dioxide, according to ORCAA.
The Port Townsend pulp mill emitted 151,661 tons of greenhouse gases in 2007, according to Ecology.
Nippon will emit about 225,000 tons of carbon dioxide, a major source of greenhouse gas, per year once its new biomass energy project goes online in 2012, Perlwitz said.
It’s unknown how much emissions of greenhouse gases will change at the Port Townsend mill under its biomass energy project because Ecology did not require that to be reported in the project’s permit application.
Tenny said the new regulations will hinder the growth of the biomass industry.
His organization in December released a study that says the new regulations put biomass projects at risk of delays or being scratched completely through additional permit fees and having to comply with higher emission-control standards.
“There’s only so much they can take,” Tenny said.
As many as 134 projects will fall under the tailoring rule, Tenny said.
He said he didn’t know how many may actually be delayed.
Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging officials told The Daily News in Longview last month that its biomass project may be delayed in order to ensure compliance with the new regulations.
Tenny said the EPA should take note of the effects of the regulations on the biomass industry because delays with planned projects could make it harder for utilities to meet renewable-energy mandates.
But despite Tenny’s concerns, biomass projects may not have it so bad under the new regulations.
EPA said in a Dec. 13 report on the new rules that permitting authorities can take the burning of biomass into account when determining whether a facility is in compliance.
Also, EPA plans by May to decide whether separate guidelines should apply to biomass projects.
Port Townsend Air Watchers 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 were defeated last month in an appeal of a permit Nippon received for its new boiler from the city of Port Angeles, and which say they plan to appeal the Nippon project to the state pollution control board in the spring.
The seven groups are Port Townsend AirWatchers, 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.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
