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