Dear MA DOER  RPS Public Comments,

 

We have so little time to act to reverse our CO2 emissions dilemma - why are we chopping down old trees, which absorb vast amounts of carbon, and including wood burning as clean energy?  Massachusetts deserves better than this ridiculous proposal.

 

I am alarmed by the proposed changes to RPS Class I, especially the changes that reduce or eliminate the core requirements of the 2012 RPS bioenergy rules.  in particular the DOER plans reductions in facility efficiency criteria, increases in the allowed variety of wood, including whole trees, increasing from 20 years to 30 years the timeframe for plants to show a net reduction in GHG emissions relative to fossil fuels, calculations of lifecycle CO2 emissions that ignore fossil fuels used in harvesting, processing and transport, elimination of requirements for liquid fuels to show a real reduction in GHG?s, and the removal of Massachusetts-specific forest harvesting criteria.

 

The Baker administration is aware that the climate crisis is real, is urgent, and that the time window for dramatic action is just a few years.  These proposals are entirely contrary to the public good, contrary to my health and especially the health of children and older adults.

 

Clean energy does not come out of a smokestack. Burning wood is a highly emitting source of energy and the there is no longer time to grow new forests to recapture the emissions, and moreover living forests sequester CO2.

 

Health impacts are an immediate consequence of wood burning.  The Commonwealth and its citizens can ill afford increased health care costs and reductions in quality of life due to illness caused by particulate matter pollution.

 

I urge you to withdraw the proposed eligibility changes to RPS Class I and Class II.

 

Thank you.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ingrid Geis 

3 Black Horse Terrace

Winchester, MA 01890

idgeis@comcast.net

(781) 756-0266