Update – A hearing on HB 2440 was held on April 18. The Sierra Club testified against the bill, while the timber industry group behind the legislation was unwilling to defend the bill’s merits. It died without further action, though we can expect similar legislation to appear in future sessions.
HB 2440 – This bill would declare air emissions from burning biomass to be ‘carbon neutral emissions’ regardless of the source of the biomass materials. It would further exempt biomass energy facilities from greenhouse gas emissions permitting and even basic reporting on the volume of carbon emissions they release each year. It is generally well understood that burning biomass does in fact release carbon dioxide, and that different sources of biomass have different carbon impacts. In reality, energy produced from burning wood that is a byproduct the type of logging operations common in Oregon would take many decades to be considered ‘carbon neutral.’ If biomass is derived from logging old growth forests, ‘carbon neutrality’ may not be attained for centuries. Sierra Club position: oppose