From: Luis Contreras <doccontreras@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, June 7, 2019 5:48 PM
To: RPS, DOER (ENE)
Cc: Luis Contreras
Subject: < RPS should not include burning Biomass >
Mr. John Wassam
Department of Energy Resources
Dear Mr. Wassam
Please consider my objection to incentivize wood-burning biomass energy in the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard.
Climate and public health
1. Burning wood creates higher emissions than coal. Incomplete combustion releases soot with particulate matter ‒ blackens lungs and leads to respiratory and cardiac distress and diseases such as asthma and cancer.
2. Short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), black carbon (a
component of PM), tropospheric ozone and methane contribute to both the
warming of the climate as well as air pollution.
According to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, these three
highly potent pollutants are responsible for 30-40% of the global warming to
date. They must be curbed alongside carbon dioxide (CO2) to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7
degrees F) and prevent catastrophic climate impacts like sea
level rise and water insecurity.
Black carbon and ozone persist in the atmosphere for just a few
days and methane for up to few decades; it takes more than 100 years to
eliminate CO2 . That means actions that reduce SLCPs can yield
almost immediate reductions in their concentrations, with benefits to the
climate and human health.
Importantly, some particulate matter can also have a cooling effect by blocking solar radiation, but there will always be a health benefit from reducing particular matter. Decision-makers should consider this interplay when designing strategies to reduce SLCPs.
Standing Forests are better than burning wood
Power plants in Europe are increasing the burning of wood pellets from the United States, Canada and Eastern Europe. Environmentalists warn that old forests in those places are being chopped up and left to regrow, or in some cases replaced by forest plantations.
Burning coal is better than burning wood
But it’s not only the loss of old forests that worries scientists. Studies have shown that wood-burning power plants emit more carbon dioxide per megawatt hour of electricity produced than plants burning fossil fuels.
Even
taking forest regrowth into account, scientists warn that over decades and
centuries burning wood adds more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than
producing energy the old-fashioned way by burning coal and fossil fuels does.
With respect,
Luis
Dr.
Luis Contreras
Eureka
Springs, AR 72631
Address
and phone provided upon request