Summer Energy News Digest for Central Oregon

Central Oregon News Digest • Summer 2009
Compiled by The Garner Group – August 24, 2009

ENERGY

Hydro plants in the pipeline, literally and figuratively

Federal stimulus grants to two Central Oregon irrigation districts, directed at water conservation, will fund canal piping and construction of small-scale generating plants. The Swalley Irrigation District will receive $2 million to complete enclosing 5.1 miles of its main canal north of Bend, including an 0.75-mW hydro plant near Highway 97. Three Sisters Irrigation District was awarded $1.3 million to initiate a pipeline project that will increase stream flows in Whychus Creek. This project eventually will include a 1.5-mW hydro plant. Both generating plants are “in-conduit” designs that utilize water flow within the pipeline.

County approves wind farm, with conditions

The Crook County planning commission has approved the West Butte Wind Power Project, proposed for a 20-acre site near Millican. Conditions include formation of a technical advisory committee to address wildlife concerns. Access will require a right-of-way permit from the Bureau of Land Management, in turn requiring an environmental impact study. Work on the $220 million project, which will involve from 32 to 54 turbines, is expected to start in spring 2010. The 104-mW project falls below the threshold that would require approval beyond the county level.

La Pine may yet see a biomass power plant

While one company’s plans to build a biomass-fueled power plant in La Pine are on hold, another has moved into the arena. Biogreen Sustainable Energy Co. of St. Helens, Ore., will buy a 10-acre parcel in the La Pine Industrial Park and build a $55-$60 million, 19-mW electricity generating plant fueled by thinnings from private and public forests nearby. The project will support 100 construction jobs and employ 20 people directly upon completion, plus another 80-90 indirect jobs in forestry and transportation. Silvan Power Co. has an option to buy 28 acres in La Pine for a biomass power plant but plans apparently have stalled over fuel availability issues.

Woody Biomass Plant in La Pine Scheduled for Completion in 2011

New Biomass Power Plant to Bring Jobs to La Pine
By Doug Johnson – KOHD-TV News – June 29, 2009
 
In 18 months 10 acres on the corner of Reed Road and Mitts Way in La Pine, will be transformed into a biomass power plant, able to produce almost twenty megawatts of electricity. The plans were approved Monday morning, by the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners.
 
“Going to add to the economy, going to create jobs, they’re going to produce steam, that will maybe be able to use in other applications, other businesses,” says Susan Ross, Director of Property and Facilities for Deschutes County.
 
Biogreen Sustainable Energy out of St. Helens Oregon will build and operate the plant. It expects the plant to bring twenty direct jobs, with as many as ninety indirect jobs such as trucking and forestry to follow. In addition, the company says about one hundred construction jobs should be created in the next four months.

Woody Biomass Energy: Another Corn Ethanol Debacle?

Unfortunately the following article jumps all over the place, tries but fails to be “fair and balanced”, and approaches a modestly complex subject too simplistically. Part of the role of journalism is to educate readers and to give them intellectual tools for thought and does not give both sides of an argument equal weight when it is not so (i.e. fire suppression is many times a greater culprit for our unhealthy forests than an environmental opposition to logging). 

For just one example, instead of writing the following sentence: They say once you start transporting biomass by truck, or train, or ship, you lose the benefits of biomass because the closer the power plants can be to the forests, the better off you are,  it would be much better to explain WHY you would be better off by explaining the concept of Distributed Generation. And by the way, just who is the “They” who say this?

Just as there are worthwhile ways to turn foodstuffs into energy (biofuels made from “waste” cooking grease) there are worthwhile ways to turn woody biomass into energy (locally produced energy from “waste” wood left over from harvesting timber and from the manufacture of products from that timber).  But growing a corn, a valuble foodstuff, specifically to make ethanol or cutting down trees to burn to make electricity simply does not make sense environmentally or economically. The ethanol industry has clearly proven that this approach to “clean” energy is folly.

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Could Oregon’s Trees Make Us Energy Exporter?
By Ethan Lindsey – OPB News – June 22, 2009

The dictionary defines biomass as living matter in one area.

But the second definition for biomass is what could give Oregon a leading role in the next century.

“Plant materials and animal waste used a source of fuel.”

Using plant and tree materials for energy is good news for Oregon.

Half of the state is forest-land.

But like this national forest between Bend and Sisters, many of Oregon’s forests are unhealthy.

Between a century of fire suppression and decades of environmental opposition to logging – the tree stands here are too thick and too dry.

Eugene Mayor Supports Seneca Biomass Cogeneration Plant

Seneca deserves a chance to prove its biomass utilization works
Project raises tough questions, but proposal looks sustainable 
By Kitty Piercy – Editorial For The Register-Guard – Jun 7, 2009

The state of Oregon and the Obama administration both support biomass utilization to reduce carbon emissions and our dependence on fossil fuels. Seneca Sawmill Co. is proposing a biomass cogeneration facility that will use residue from timber manufacturing and slash from logging operations, which would otherwise be burned in open air, to produce energy for the company and the broader community.

Nothing is without controversy, especially the environmental effects of energy production — whether it is solar, wind, geothermal or biomass. Toxins are created in manufacturing, human and wildlife populations are affected, and other effects require monitoring and mitigation.

There are legitimate questions about the potential effects of biomass utilization on forest protection, air quality and issues of environmental justice. Seneca itself has generated controversies in the past due to some forest practices and political positions.

I am committed to sustainability, and have asked Eugene area businesses to step forward. At the same time I want to responsibly understand the impacts of all the steps we take.

I asked for answers about the Seneca proposal from experts in forest protection and management, state environmental quality and energy oversight, sociology, sustainability, utilities, air quality protection, toxics, and environmental justice. I also talked to neighbors of the proposed facility.

Here are the answers I received. I don’t claim these answers address all concerns, but they’ve helped me reach my own conclusions.

More Arguments Against Woody Biomass Plants

Something fishy about forest biomass claims
By Josh Schlossberg and Shannon Wilson – Register-Guard GUEST VIEWPOINT – May 6, 2009

RISI, the leading information provider for the global forest products industry, states in its October 2008 Wood Biomass Market Report that “the perceived overabundance of ‘waste wood’ in the nation’s forests is simply not there.”

What this means is — even counting on the current unsustainable rate of short-rotation toxic clear-cutting on private forestlands — there’s not enough wood to feed proposed biomass plants, such as Seneca Sawmill Co.’s.

So why are there more and more proposed biomass plants across the United States?

According to the Oregon Forest Biomass Working Group, “The bulk of potentially available forest biomass is located on federal lands.”

Another pro-biomass group claims, “Obtaining a consistent supply of woody biomass from federal lands is one of the primary impediments to developing a biomass utilization sector.”

Biomass Left Off Obama Energy Strategy

Stimulus news isn’t all good for our region
Biomass: Money is directed to biofuels, but the woody debris from federal forests is left off Obama’s list. Walden and others want to change that.
By Keith Chu – The Bulletin – May 06, 2009

The White House unveiled its playbook to boost production of U.S. biofuels on Tuesday, but President Barack Obama’s strategy didn’t include biomass from federal forests.

On a conference call with reporters, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the plan, which includes a massive study of the environmental effects of turning crops into fuel, along with stimulus money to put those ideas into practice.

But Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, said the administration made a mistake by excluding woody debris from federal forests. As wildfires continue to burn large swaths of Central and Eastern Oregon forests, it makes more sense to cut the brush and undergrowth, which reduces fire danger, and use the debris created by the thinning for biofuel, Walden said. Money generated by biofuels could then be used to offset the costs of the thinning projects.

The Seneca Biomass Plant Debate Continues

An on-line comment on Todd Payne’s Guest Viewpoint (below) claimed that the recent American Lung Association report, State of the Air: 2009 gave Lane County a failing grade for particulates.  Much of those particulates come from field burning.  Will the Seneca biomass plant significantly add to the particulates?  Read the well-written editorial below.

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Biomass plant will cut Seneca’s carbon release
By Todd Payne* – Guest Viewpoint – April 29, 2009

As the project manager for Seneca Sustainable Energy’s cogeneration plant, I have a hard time understanding the criticism directed at this renewable and reliable source of power.

As we explored the development of the facility, I saw a great benefit in reducing greenhouse gases by using woody biomass rather than natural gas to fuel our sawmill’s dry kilns. Plus, we would generate 18.8 megawatts of local electricity, enough to meet the energy needs of 13,000 homes. This is the kind of project encouraged by the Federal Energy Management Program and by the Oregon Department of Energy.

Everyone I spoke with as we developed our plans indicated that our new facility was a step in the right direction. No one raised any issues. I believe that’s because the benefits of our facility outweigh its air emissions.

We are addressing climate change by replacing a fossil fuel with woody biomass, and reducing our carbon dioxide emissions by 3,500 tons annually.

Why Shouldn’t Woody Biomass Be “Renewable”?

While much of Congressman Walden’s general political behavior is simply pandering to his conservative constituency, he is right to ask why is it alright to simply burn forest slash in open piles?  This practice wastes the heat that’s generated from the burn and turns the woody biomass into mostly carbon particulates and carbon dioxiode.  Why not attempt to find a way to utilize the woody byproduct of forestry and thinning to produce energy while reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that escapes into the atmosphere at the same time?

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Walden, Gore debate the merits of biomass
Woody debris from federal land isn’t renewable under energy bill
By Keith Chu - The Bulletin – April 25, 2009

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden and former Vice President Al Gore shared a testy exchange Friday over how to use woody debris from federal lands in a U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.

In an unusual four-day-long hearing this week, Walden repeatedly pressed witnesses about why woody debris from federal land doesn’t count as renewable energy in a massive bill to reduce greenhouse gases that is being debated in the House committee. Gore was on hand as perhaps the most famous of a host of experts on climate change and energy who testified throughout the week.

An Editorial Against Seneca Woody Biomass Plant

Seneca’s power plant far from green
By John Herberg* – Register-Guard Guest Viewpoint – April 20, 2009

The Register Guard’s April 6 editorial on Seneca Sawmill Co.’s proposed wood-fired power plant tried to place the project’s air pollutants in context. Oregon Toxics Alliance would like to continue that goal.

The editorial disregarded the 470 tons of air pollutants that would be emitted by the plant by comparing them to all possible sources of pollutants in Lane County. That is one way of looking at it, but it overlooks the fact that the plant will be one of the single largest sources of air pollution in Eugene and Lane County.

Deschutes County Prefers Woody Biomass Over Solar

Solar may be mandated, but officials here push for biomass
By Nick Budnick  – The Bulletin - April 18, 2009

After a key legislative deadline passed on Friday, Deschutes County officials are resorting to some creative politicking in the Capitol to change a state solar power requirement.

In 2007, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed into law a requirement backed by the solar energy industry that all new public building projects include 1.5 percent of their spending on solar power, such as rooftop panels.

In Deschutes County, however, officials say that money could be better spent on a different alternative energy source dubbed biomass, or as Phil Chang of the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council puts it, a “community-scale thermal energy project.”