Biomass power plants wary of EPA carbon accounting
By JEFF BARNARD
GRANTS PASS, Ore.
Oregon and other states with lots of trees have been counting on generating more electricity by burning forest thinnings and logging leftovers as a promising future source of green jobs and renewable energy as well as a way to pay for projects to prevent forest fires.
But a rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in May has the biomass industry, and Oregon’s congressional delegation, worried that biomass may lose its long-standing green status, and be lumped in with coal as a greenhouse gas polluter.