Governor Baker,

 

The proposed changes to RPS Class I, especially the changes that reduce or eliminate the core requirements of the 2012 RPS bioenergy rules are unacceptable. As you know, the DOER plans reductions in efficiency criteria, increases in the allowed variety of wood, including whole trees from our State forests, increasing from 20 years to 30 years the time frame for plants to show a net reduction in GHG emissions relative to fossil fuels, calculation 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.

 

Your administration is aware that the climate crisis is urgent and that the time window for dramatic action is just a few years.

 

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

 

I urge you to withdraw the proposed eligibility changes to RPS Class I and Class II and to fully support H. 897 An Act Relative to Forest Protection

 

Thank you for your consideration,

Don Ogden

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