President Trump's EPA Says Burning Wood is Carbon Neutral, Like Wind and Solar Energy

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Apparently not satire.

President Trump's EPA Says Burning Wood is Carbon Neutral, Like Wind and Solar Energy

Matt Novak
Today 8:00am

The awkwardly named Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declared that burning wood is carbon neutral. In the eyes of the Trump regime, burning wood for energy is now just as environmentally friendly as wind and solar power, despite the fact that burning biomass releases greenhouse gases.

“Today’s announcement grants America’s foresters much-needed certainty and clarity with respect to the carbon neutrality of forest biomass,” said EPA Administrator, and scandal-plagued swamp creature, Scott Pruitt in a statement released yesterday.

Rather than calling it a new policy, the EPA is trying to position it as a “clarification” while pretending that it’s been the agency’s policy the entire time. But the Obama administration was opposed to calling the practice carbon neutral. ... “Managed forests improve air and water quality, while creating valuable jobs and thousands of products that improve our daily lives,” Pruitt continued. “This is environmental stewardship in action.”

This might come as a shock, but many scientists think that burning biomass will make climate change worse within our lifetimes.

News Releases

News Releases from Headquarters›Office of the Administrator (AO)

Administrator Pruitt Promotes Environmental Stewardship with Forestry Leaders and Students in Georgia

04/23/2018
Contact Information: ([e-mail])

COCHRAN, GA — Today, during a meeting with Georgia forestry leaders, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt discussed the importance of environmental stewardship and announced a new decision on the carbon neutrality of forest biomass.

“Today’s announcement grants America’s foresters much-needed certainty and clarity with respect to the carbon neutrality of forest biomass,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “Managed forests improve air and water quality, while creating valuable jobs and thousands of products that improve our daily lives. This is environmental stewardship in action.”

In the meeting with members of the forestry community, Administrator Pruitt announced the Agency issued a statement of policy making clear, that future regulatory actions on biomass from managed forests will be treated as carbon neutral when used for energy production at stationary sources. The Agency will also be assessing options for incorporating non-forest biomass as carbon neutral into future actions.

The use of biomass from managed forests can bolster domestic energy production, provide jobs to rural communities, and promote environmental stewardship by improving soil and water quality, reducing wildfire risk, and helping to ensure our forests continue to remove carbon from the atmosphere. This policy will provide certainty to rural communities and the forest industry while supporting economic growth.

[Blues Heron]

1. I thought it was carbon neutral

Trees take out co2 then burning them puts it back right?

[Snackshack]

2. This must be some new form of physics by the EPA.

Because burning wood is not carbon neutral...

[Blues Heron]

3. It is carbon neutral

the co2 comes from the air when the tree grows, and goes back to the air when the tree is burned. Thus, neutral. Fossil fuels release carbon that was sequstered from the air millions of years ago. Not Carbon neutral.

[Snackshack]

5. Time is the.

Determining factor?

I disagree with that assessment because you can’t discount the other factors involved in order to burn wood and certainly not equate-able to wind and solar.

[Blues Heron]

6. yes time

is the determining factor. Fossil fuels release ancient carbon back into the atmosphere. Wood releases carbon that was taken from the atmosphere as the tree grows. Plus (as others have said) the total carbon budget that went into making the axe to cut the tree, the gas and oil for the pickup truck, as well as the future use of the land the tree was grown on etc.

[NickB79]

4. It can be if done locally and sustainably

I use a Vermont Castings catalytic wood-burning stove for our house, and use wood harvested locally by a guy I know with a tree removal business. This means the wood travels no more than 20-25 miles from source to my house, and I order it by the full cord (heaping pickup load full) to minimize transport emissions. The catalytic insert reduces particulate matter and increases efficiency to allow it to meet EPA certifications. Since the trees he's removing are often from land farmers want converted to field, it is not carbon-neutral because the forest cannot regenerate, but it is less carbon-intensive than burning propane in the basement furnace.

On the other hand, clearcutting entire forests to convert to wood pellets, which are then shipped across the Atlantic to Europe for their biomass-burning power plants, is clearly NOT carbon neutral in any circumstance.